TMNT - Invasion of the Demons
by VAPX007
Summary: Raph is a single dad in a world gone apocalyptic. Who's behind the invasion and what does it have to do with the paranoid voice in Leo's head? How is Don going to stop the portals safely when his brothers are scattered across Manhattan? Is Mikey's sanity the final casualty? A Ninja rat baby-sits three hungry toddler turtle-dragons, knowing the enemy must slip up soon...
1. Ch1 P1 - Red-Eyed Turtle

_Blurb:_

 _The invasion of the demons is halfway into its second year and the boys have each found their own way to fight the incursions. But if they're to get to the real cause they'll need to start working together again. That's not so easy when trust and sanity is the enemy's first target..._

 _Disclaimer:_

 _Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This story is based on_ _TMNT_ _2003 series' Seasons 1-5; Mirage Studios co-produced. You don't need to have watched that particular series if I've done my job right, but that whole 'slightly dark and gritty feel' is right up my alley._

 _Additionally no declaration of ownership is made of_ _New York_ _, reptiles, mutants, ninjitsu or cannon characters and plot devices._

 _Dedicated to my family:_

 _Side by side we fit together like the pieces of a broken mug and a drop of crazy glue._

* * *

 **Chapter One**

 **There Are Four Turtles**

* * *

 **Part 1**

 **Red-Eyed Turtle**

* * *

The lights flashed red, then black, then red, then black; all along the wide empty corridors of the underground military complex.

The alarm sounded overhead: "Intruder alert sub-level one."

Commodore John Bishop, a tall lean built man wearing sunglasses and a grey official's uniform hurried up along the walkway. Four guards in black armour suits and matching black motorcycle helmets flanked him, 'FPA' imprinted on their gear in inch tall white block letters. The red lights were barely strong enough to reach the floor and the walls to either side were blank.

"Be careful, we don't know what the intruder is; let alone what 'it' is capable of." Bishop warned them and scanned his hand signature into the locking system. "Open and hold." He voice commanded into the panel's microphone. Identified as authorised personnel, the door slid calmly open for him.

The four guards by his side pointed their guns into the opening. Nothing appeared in their line of sight. The light within the room flashed in synchronisation with the walkway lights: black, red, black, red.

The first two guards ventured forwards and went in cautiously through the doorway. The lights flashed around their silhouettes. Red, black, red, black, gone, black, red, black, gone, black, red, black, red, they vanished between the lights, the second guard having only enough time for a mild gasp of surprise.

"Oh, come on, Bishop, is that all you got for me? You call this an alarm system?"

Instantly recognising the youthful voice Bishop took a step back in mild surprise. "Donatello. Stand down, men. Return to your duties. And someone find a way to reset that alarm." He folded his arms as the two behind him walked off and the other two from inside the doorway staggered past to join their comrades in the journey back up the walkway.

"What is the meaning of this, Donatello?" Bishop asked through the doorway.  
"Funny, that was the question I was asking myself too." Donatello's voice answered back.  
"Why did you feel it necessary to set off the security system?"  
"It brought you down here in a snap, didn't it? Just a little bit of alarm and here you are. And you should be alarmed Bishop."

Red, black, red, black, the lights continuously flashed.

The turtle stepped out of the lab. He was wearing a black armoured suit like the others but without the FPA logo on the front, his purple Ninja mask on his face and a black motorcycle helmet was in his left hand. On his back he had two katana and a gun the length of his shell slung over his shoulder. "Very alarmed."

"Why are you wearing your prototype suit?"  
"Because I'm leaving," Donatello explained in a tone of quiet outrage; "Stockman told me you knocked back my research probe proposal."  
"Hmm," Bishop frowned unimpressed, "I was going to explain my reasoning to you myself, Donatello,-."

"Oh, right, an explanation, how stupid of me! Of course there must be a logical explanation for not wanting to get to the source of our problems! Maybe it's because you like your new job; perhaps you like New York falling down around you, it makes you feel needed. Appreciated."

"Donatello!" Bishop remonstrated, "I think you have been spending too much time with Doctor Stockman. The portal research probe is a perfectly good idea if we had sufficient safety measures to go with it. However, so far what you've proposed to me is rash, foolhardy and-."

"Rash is hardly the word I'd use, Bishop!" Donatello exclaimed in his outrage. "Every night portals have been randomly appearing around the city depositing unpleasant creatures with appetites that range from New York's inhabitants to New York itself. The portals have been popping up all over this city for two and a half years, spitting out demons left right and centre every night for two and a half 'years'!" He stressed the word, "Not days, not months but 'years'! So far all we've been doing is fighting demons; we've done nothing about the portals themselves."

"It's extremely dangerous!" Bishop finished what he was saying. "You are putting FPA personnel in the direct line of fire. The portals open with an incredible amount of force. We've had five fatalities since the initial outbreak simply because an FPA Squadron officer was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time when one of the portals you so desperately wish to examine appeared. An additional two of our officers survived the blast only to get promptly eaten by the titan that the portal heralded. The casualty risk associated with your proposal is practically guaranteed and I will not put my men in such a position."

"That's fine, Bishop, I can do it myself! I have no problem with-."  
"No! Donatello. The risk doesn't change with you doing it instead. Unmitigated risk is entirely unacceptable in all instances."  
Donatello stepped around him and started walking backwards. "And that's why I'm leaving."  
"I'm clear on the fact that you're upset, Donatello, and a break from the lab may do you good, but-."  
"But what? You still need my services? So I can build another new toy for you? You know what; I'm beginning to think you really do like having demons overrunning Manhattan. They give you something to shoot at."

"I don't! Donatello." Bishop gritted his name quietly, "But we need every man we have alive and yes, you are someone we cannot do without. Until there are enough safety measures in place, I cannot approve the project."  
"See you later, Commodore." Unlistening, Donatello turned around and disappeared up the red and black flashing corridor to the lift.

Bishop gritted his teeth and looked back to the lab door. "Doctor Stockman!" He stepped through the open door and saw the scientist's brain in question, floating in his jar, the mute sign flashing on his electronic life support panel and a grappling hook from the roof trapping him in place.

Bishop went to the computer panel and released the grapple, but he wasn't in the mood for hearing Stockman's electronic voice so rounded smartly on him. "As I already told you earlier, Doctor Stockman; start working on those safety measures for Donatello's project!" He gritted, "If he doesn't come back I will hold you personally accountable." With that he strode towards the door, and scanned his handprint out, letting the door slide closed behind him.

"Donatello does need time off." He muttered to himself. "That was an atypically irrational response. He literally never acts like that." He stopped in the middle of the walkway, realising he was still surrounded by red flashing lights, turned around, and scanned himself back into the lab.

"Would you please get the lights, Doctor Stockman?" He gritted in annoyance through the doorway.  
"I can't sir," Stockman's electronic voice answered in some distress.  
"I'll do it."  
"Ha, I'd like to see you try. He's encrypted the ..." Stockman's voice trailed as Bishop strode past Stockman hovering at the computer and reached the far wall. He opened the fuse box panel and reached in, flipped up the switch that said 'security' on it and then flipped it back down. The main lights came back up immediately. He turned to review the scientist. "You were saying, Doctor Stockman?"

"I-I was just saying, sir, that I will start at once on finding a way to make Donatello's research probe venture a safe and happy experience for all concerned, Commodore." The brain in the jar prattled in supplication through the electronic voice interface.

"Good. At least then we may make some progress." Bishop declared stiffly and strode back out of the lab.


	2. Ch1 P2 Raphael's Routine

**Chapter One**

 **There Are Four Turtles**

* * *

 **Part 2**

 **Raphael's Routine**

* * *

 _The name's Raphael. Raphael Splinterson, Alpha Team leader, Flashpoint Security. My job title might be long but the work's real clear-cut. Stake out the big portals, jump the incoming uglies and make sure they don't stick around. It's one of those jobs, where, if you slip up you might not be going home. My kind of job._

It was the eleventh hour in the downtown district and Raphael had finished work. The clouds in the sky weren't too thick and let through a haze of moonlight, showing up the silhouette of a man-sized turtle, the handle of a sword sticking up above his shell. In the dark it wasn't easy to see the handles of two Sais sticking out of his belt, and even less the fact that he was wearing a red Ninja mask on his face.

A busted neon sign a few shopfronts up flickered; the only man-made light around was the light in the window of an adult bookstore and a neon 'T' clinging to the wall over it, pathetic, but persistent. A Yourklitov demon, some yellow-coloured garbage guts titan, had been on this street earlier and ruined their sign, but for the humans running the store it was business as usual.

"We gotta stay clear of that place. It's busy and has too much light." Raphael tutored quietly. "Feel the way the wind's coming at us? Straight from across the road, hitting us and carrying our scent straight into this alleyway here. We don't wanna be upwind of our target so crossing the street is out. We could go round the back and jump that fence but let's get up on the roof this time. An aerial attack always lends a bit more surprise." So saying, Raphael edged into the alleyway alongside the bookstore, watching and listening for new threats all around.

The dumpster rattled, setting him further on edge. He sniffed as his pulled out his Sais, catching a whiff of banana skins and pizza crusts. There was something in the dumpster that had moved in since he'd cased this area half an hour earlier.

Raphael stared at the dumpster, getting less impressed with its new resident by the half second. "Come on out and say 'hi'." He gritted as he spun his Sais in his hands. Then he kicked the lid open.

With a fierce hiss a mangy cat leapt out of the dumpster making Raphael jump back. The brown cat hightailed down the alleyway, jumped up the wooden fence and was gone.

There was a stifled giggle in the air around him. Raphael felt a blush. "Glad you're having fun, Joi."  
"Why did you ask for it to jump out at you, dad?" Another little voice enquired.  
"I dunno, Yoshi," Raphael rolled his eyes at his own hapless ridiculousness, "just ... take it as a lesson on what not to do, okay?"

Raphael cleared his mind again and refocused on the job he was doing. "Let's keep going." He said quietly and stole halfway up the alley after the cat, dodging carelessly strewn pizza boxes and cans of soft drink. He hooked the fire escape with his hand and quietly climbed to the roof of the bookstore building. After creeping across to the opposite side he looked down over the ledge to the next alleyway. There was a distinct presence in the air below.

"You kids feel that?" He asked quietly without taking his eyes off the narrow gap below. "Like the air is vibrating and it ain't just us. It means we're real close."  
"Yes, dad."  
"Yeah, dad."  
Raphael looked to the three small turtle silhouettes on either side of him, peering down the side of the building with him. "So, anyone hungry yet?"

The three faced him and nodded, looking up at him, their eyes glistening brightly in the dark. "Good, so we do this like normal. Joi," He said to his littlest turtle, "on my tail."

With a calculated jump, Raphael was across the gap to the building on the other side. He jumped down to the last tier of the fire-escape. The lid on the dumpster opposite him was rattling, tentacles peeking over the edge and a quiet slobbering sound told the rest of the story.

It was a dumpster demon.

"Now that's more like it; no mangy cat this time. Rise and shine, Korblytt." Raphael flipped open the lid of the dumpster and then vaulted clear out of the way and his three kids rushed forwards to tackle the demon in the semi-shelter of the alleyway.

Raphael looked out onto the street, his mind focusing on the variables. He'd cased this area already after the Yourklitov battle and there were no new demon tracks and no wannabe Purple Dragons flexing their muscles. Like a petty crime organisation would really want to bother with a demon holed up in a dumpster, anyway. Nobody hunting demons would bother with dumpsters unless they were rookies; it was literally kid stuff.

It was a kiddie meal and his kids had it. Raphael's attention was on everything around, the mouth of the alleyway, the bookstore patron round the corner fishing in her handbag for the keys to the car, the slamming window from an apartment overhead.

His kids had finished eating in the barest few minutes. They were definitely getting faster at it. It wasn't long and the demon was gone.

"Come on, kids, let's go home."  
"Hey, dad?"  
Raphael shuddered at the pleading tone. "Yeah, Tora, what's your problem?"  
"No, dad, I just ... can we go to granddad's place for a while?"  
"Oh, yes!" Yoshi agreed, "Can we go see Master Splinter, dad?"

Raphael was tired after a full-on day managing three energetic preschoolers and then from dusk till ten he'd been battling Yourklitov's and a host of other big uglies but he guessed it didn't matter really where he was being tired, at home in the apartment or in the old lair because he still had three nipping kids to keep in line. The only problem with going to see his elder was that Splinter could be too empathetic sometimes. He looked down at his youngest, "What do you want to do, Joi?"

His baby girl got up daintily on her claw tipped feet. "Tack papa jag vill," She uttered contentedly, reaching up for a hug with her five clawed fingers. "Anata to issho ni imasu."

"Good try." Raphael picked her up by her shell. With a sigh he gave her a hug. "You know you've gotta start talking in English sometime, Joi." He then set her on her feet again beside her older brothers. With a shock he realised Joi was almost Yoshi's height despite being so much younger. He spent every day with his kids so how could he have not noticed Joi getting this big?

"Alright then, you three," Raphael shrugged off the moment of realisation; "This way to the sewer entrance." Raphael passed the dumpster on his way to the manhole and levered up the cover. "Let me check down here first and I'll call you down. Just like normal."

His kids nodded and stayed beside the lid while Raphael eased himself down the ladder, keeping his senses alert in case a demon jumped up in his face.

The sewer had better lighting than the street. The damp, the mould, the decay of the stormwater drain had a quieter consistency than the assaulting smells of the rotting alleyway. Raphael steadied his mind in the quiet, focusing on the ambient sounds.

There was a rat, two rats, a small swarm of cockroaches. Only a Hwuxlis demon was anywhere near to him, hungrily eating cockroaches. It was merely a snack for Joi.

Raphael opened his eyes and looked up at the round entrance above. "We're clear down here for a bit. Come on, Tora." He stated, hooking Tora's shell and getting him down, "Joi." He helped Joi down, "Yoshi." Once all three were down he stepped back up a couple rungs and dragged the manhole cover back into place.

"Stick together, kids." He said, not knowing how many times he'd told them that line. "Joi, by my side," He held out his hand and took her tiny one. They headed off on the trek back to the old lair, his smallest turtle trotting in step.

Raphael kept his senses alert, listening to the cockroaches, to the rats and the limbering, spider-like Hwuxlis, making sure there was nothing large lurking in the vicinity. What made their sewer walks more trialling was the fact that his kids always got tired after their dinner.

"Stay alert, kids." He roused them quietly, his eyes on the tunnel up ahead. "Nothing's gonna jump out on us today, alright? We're Ninja and dragons and that means we do the jumping."  
"Yes, dad." Yoshi answered quietly back, "Stay awake, Tora!" He roused.  
"I am awake!" Tora complained, "Quit poking me, Yoshi!"  
"Shush you two." Raphael hushed them without looking around, "This ain't exactly safe down here. Yoshi, torture your older brother later, okay?"

"Yes, dad."

Raphael focused on their journey. No, that was a cockroach sound. That was water dripping from a crack in a small pipe to the left. That was a mosquito. A small swarm of Hwuxlis were infesting the water here. There was nothing huge and demonic anywhere near this junction. He picked up Joi and hoisted her up, stepped across the water of the cross tunnel to the walkway on the other side, and then put her down again.

"I can jump right across." Yoshi declared.  
"Can not." Tora renounced.  
"Too, you wuss," Yoshi sniped.  
"Am not. Dad!"  
"Well, come on then." Raphael egged them both on. "No good standing around here all night in the draft."

He watched his two boys. Tora landed safely on the cement. Yoshi nearly make the gap with his claw tipped toes on the edge and Raphael swooped his arm down and caught him from falling backwards into the busy water. "Ha, nearly, Yoshi." Raphael stated in mirth, "Think we have to give this round to Tora." He smiled at Yoshi, "You just need to get a little bit bigger." He ran his hand over his son's head and turned back to the path ahead.

It was several steps down the next tunnel before Yoshi replied. "I'm working on it." The toddler declared solemnly from out of the quiet blue.

That was the last Raphael heard of his two sons for a good long while. It was nice to have his lot behaving for a spell. He wondered how long this white flag would stay up.

They went along, across, then down to the next level. The pathway suddenly got treacherous. Broken cement and busted pipes bringing down rushing water told of a recent fight in this area. Bits of torn fabric and a fallen hard helmet told Raphael who had won. "Keep three steps behind me, kids." He told them, drawing the Claymore from its sheath on his back, his centre focus on the lazy contented burbling coming from around the corner. He could tell by the sound that this one was a Freggith. That put this ugly at the size of a year old alligator but with lengthy nobbling limbs and a rounded off head.

Raphael concentrated his mind on the demon's presence. Centre field, but only four steps up the tunnel; Raphael needed more run up for a frontal attack or he'd be in for a long wrestling match and he'd already had a full night. He took a step out into the middle of the junction and made a running leap at the wall, rebounding and bringing the sword down on the surprised demon.

His kids rushed in and started eating.  
"You must be growing, I only just fed you." He shook his head and cast his mind around the four tunnels merging at the junction. There was nothing else big enough to worry about at the moment.

He looked back at his three kids sitting back from a mess of leftovers, "You full now? Go on, then, make it vanish." He prompted them. In a dark shadowy blur his children vanished from view and so did the demon leftovers.

"Stay on my tail, kids." Raphael sheathed his sword and continued on walking, multiple shadows sliding along the walls around him.


	3. Ch1 P3 Midnight of the Living Turtle

**Chapter One**

 **There Are Four Turtles**

* * *

 **Part 3**

 **Midnight** **of the Living Turtle**

* * *

On the ground level of the FPA compound the ground force infantry locker rooms, meeting rooms and change rooms all lived in one happy little building off to the side beside the small vehicle hanger. Within the change rooms, officers were putting on armour suits and checking the charge metres on their weapons. It was nearing midnight and their shift was almost due.

"Hey, Splinterson," Harrison grunted, coming in and heading to the locker beside Michelangelo's, "the commodore wants to see you." Harrison opened up his locker and began getting out his gear.

Donatello had definitely heard Michelangelo's plea for a more Storm Trooper look when he'd redesigned all the patrol's armour and gear. Donatello had objected to making the main colour white, but the glossy black panels and clean white trim that he did come up with gave it that futuristic finish that Michelangelo liked. He had to wear it every night on patrol, after all, so he might as well look cool when he was about it.

He went over to Bishop's little campaign office up the hall and poked his head in through the open door. "A little bird said you wanted to see me?"  
Commodore Bishop sitting at the table waved his hand, "Something of a matter, I'm not positive I should be talking to you."  
Michelangelo cocked an eyebrow, "Sure, if you want to keep it to yourself; I'm good with that." He shrugged easily.  
Bishop frowned, "I'm concerned; your brother has been overworking himself and his arguments have taken an irrational turn."

"Donny?" Michelangelo felt personally involved but still had no idea, "So, you're basically saying my bro's gone crazy?"  
"I'm sure some time off would help." Bishop paused. "Perhaps we should arrange some time off for you as well."  
"I'm fine, Bishop. What got Donny upset?"

"His latest project proposal is a way to see inside the portals. It's an excellent idea, but not without the appropriate safety guards to go with it. He took my argument about safety as a summary dismissal; Doctor Stockman, no doubt played a large measure in making him think that. But that Stockman could affect him so easily in the first place, that's my concern."

"So Donny wants to try and close the portals down from the inside." Michelangelo interpreted.  
"It would be brilliant if he hadn't so entirely overlooked the danger aspect for the people involved."  
"Sooo... they'd have to get close for his thing to work. Yeah, that's kind of the opposite of good, Donny." Michelangelo shook his head in concern. "I don't want my team turning into portal pizza."  
"Donatello has engineered a great number of safety equipment for your teams. I sincerely don't think he wishes to kill you. I would rather assume that-."

"That he drinks too much coffee so he can spend more hours in the FPA lab to get things done, therefore creating a mental fatigue cycle when his over-caffeinated brain doesn't let him sleep properly when his finally does get to bed? Me too."

"Yes..."  
"But if Donny says portal data is a thing, then it's a thing. I'll check it out tomorrow, commodore. Maybe Raph's got something that can help."  
Bishop nodded. "It's appreciated, Mister Splinterson. We all want to see an end to these incursions. In the event you fail, Stockman will continue investigating the safety side of this."

Michelangelo left and turned the corner to the locker room.

When he got back Michelangelo tapped in his locker code and opened the door. His anti-acid helmet gleaming black and white at him and he grabbed it from its hook. He put his helmet on.

Then Michelangelo passed through into the weapons locker and checked the ammo gauge on his special issue Roving T-19. He also grabbed a spare battery pack, slotting it into his armour utility belt. The Roving's barrel was rectangular and recharged a whole lot faster than the special issue IXXO-02. Michelangelo grabbed a spare ammo pack for his IXXO and slotted that into his belt as well. The IXXO-02 was good as a backup weapon. It clipped onside of Michelangelo's armoured boot just on the off chance he and Rover got separated.

"Come on, Rover." Michelangelo slotted the bulky weapon into its holster on his back, noticing Harrison suited up nearby.  
"Intercom check," Harrison stated, putting his helmet on.  
Michelangelo clicked his comlink on. "Check?"  
"Check."  
"Cool." Michelangelo lifted off his helmet again and hooked it under his arm. They headed out into the assembly room. Their squads straightened to attention when Michelangelo and Harrison pulled up in front of them.

There were twenty patrol officers, ten on each squad.  
"Come on, Gamma team;" Michelangelo rallied, "Beta team's holding for us midtown."  
"Delta team, we're switching with Alpha up North side."  
"Oh!" Michelangelo looked at Harrison, "Save me some pizza, will you?"  
Harrison rolled his eyes, "Come on-I mean 'fall in', men-."  
"How many years, Harrison?" A woman in the third row piped up with a lark in her voice.  
"Oh, for crying out loud, Maddison; let's just go."

Michelangelo looked at his patrol squad, "What he said, guys, but without the 'tude."

The next thing he turned and headed to the end of the line, glancing as his squad followed him out to the FPA compound's garage.

Eleven sleek black and white Kawasaki-looking motorbikes gleamed in the overhead light silently saying 'ready to go'. Every time Michelangelo looked at them gleaming there he thought about Raphael and Casey. Raphael didn't even have a motorbike anymore. Michelangelo put his helmet on and hooked his leg over the seat. He powered up the engine.

It sure did not sound like a Kawasaki. Michelangelo had no idea what Donatello had done to the motorbikes, other than take the fuel gauge away from the dash.

Over the purring engine noise Michelangelo hand-gestured towards the door and the squad was low level flying out and into the city.

"Beta team, check in. How're you going out there, Parker?" Michelangelo called into the intercom.  
"Uh, hey Splinterson! Say; what do you get if you cross a porcupine and a ten pin?"  
"Where're you guys now?"  
"Marriott on 7th."  
"Oh! I haven't been to the movies in a while!"  
"It's great, you should really come round. Plenty of popcorn; like crazy. Peterson, block the WC. If he gets in there it'll be a real pain in the-." The channel cut off.

Michelangelo powered on through the midnight streets, aware of the other squadron bikes around him.

They kicked down across the street from the set of other patrol bikes.  
"Where've they gone?" Michelangelo frowned, looking around the street for their uniform doubles.  
"They're in the theatre."  
"Blue team left, red team right," He gestured, "We're a patrol squad, not a Ninja strike force. This is our street now." Michelangelo frowned, staring at the theatre front as all his team members fanned out to peripheral and he was alone in the centre. "Beta team, you're freaking me out. Are you okay in there?"

There was the muffled sound of gunfire and smoke belched out of the theatre. Beta squad members stumbled through the rotating door.  
"I suppose that answers that question." Michelangelo stated in relief although still unimpressed. "Parker, are you there?" He called in through his helmet microphone. Because he'd called the name specifically it would put them on a secured channel.

"You're using that tone on me again, Splinterson."  
"I just said your name." Michelangelo objected, "What tone?"  
"The preachy 'I am the Jedi Master, little Padawan' tone."  
Michelangelo felt exasperated. Any other time but life and death; "I do not sound like that."  
"You so do!"  
"Parker, did you even do the squadron command training?" Michelangelo hyped, "You're supposed to spread out and cover as much ground as you can! You were all in there; you could all have been dead, if you never answered your intercom-."

"We were engaged! There's only a few of us here, you're acting like there's fifty."  
"What if something came in after you? There's a whole eleven of you Parker, not just four. And you were all in there, crowding that place up. Where was your exit strategy? Where was your backup?"

"I'm sorry!" Parker stated, "I'm sorry, I'll try better next time."  
"I just don't want you guys killed, alright?" Michelangelo fretted, "It's too easy. You get all caught up and-."  
"I am sorry!" Parker begged him, "Look, okay, I'll work on it after we get back. I promise."

Michelangelo nodded, "Thanks, Parker, I would really appreciate you working on the whole 'not-dying' way of doing your job. I think you're a nice person so it'd be a real shame if something happened to you."  
"Wow, alright, okay, alright. Will definitely be getting onto that."

Michelangelo raised his hand to the button and cut the channel, watching the Beta team get on their patrol bikes and drive off. He felt really tense, looking around at his team members fanned out along the street. "Blue team, check?"  
"Been done, Mikey." Yelso's voice came back cheerily through the speaker.  
"Alright, red team has the ball." Michelangelo got back onto his bike and powered it on, getting more at ease with himself again. He might not be able to get Parker to be more careful, which was really sad, but at least his own squad followed his instructions. "Blue team's on side street watch."

As he travelled along the road, taking up the middle ground, Parker's description of him ran around Mike's head. Had he really come off sounding like Master Splinter? Without even trying?  
"Leader, activity right side."  
Michelangelo swerved his bike around. "Gamma team, we've got another ten pin porcupine. It looks like Beta didn't get the spare after all. Let's circle around the block and clear out the obvious big nasties and then we'll clear the bowling alley."


	4. Ch1 P4 Family Roots

_A/n: This chapter part is 3.5k long. Family stuff gets like that._

 _A/n: Happy Father's Day._

 _Disclaimer:_ _Lewis Carroll 1832-1898. So jarring yet apt. 'Jarrapting', as Humpty Dumpty might say._

* * *

 **Chapter One**

 **There Are Four Turtles**

* * *

 **Part 4**

 **Family Roots**

* * *

Closing in on the outer rim of the lair Raphael heard the faint click of one of Donatello's cameras overhead. The cameras were a great idea of Donatello's, but in the end, they were just cameras. They only gave the residents a little more warning about the passageway type of intruders. They didn't help with the other sorts of intruders.

Raphael came up to the door, operated the unassuming door handle and stepped in to the emergency door. He coded the electronic lock and they were finally inside the lair.

He listened to the ambience of the large open area around him, eyes on the emptiness. Raphael decided it was just the subtle quiet of his dad in here right now and turned back to his kids who were now standing solidly behind him in a row, "What do you reckon, kids? Tora, Yoshi; safe here for a bit? Joi?"

They all nodded, but Joi had her hands clasped together looking worried, her eyes glancing around them.

"What's the matter, Joi?"  
She responded to his question by reaching up for another hug.  
Raphael felt exasperated. "When will you start telling your old man what's bothering you?" He sighed and picked her up in defeat. He cooed softly in her ear slit, looking as Joi's five little claw tips gently curled around his bicep. "What am I gonna do with you, kid?" He kissed her forehead. "Hey?"

Raphael put Joi down, his want for his own protector getting keen. "Father?"

The rice paper door to his father's quarters slid open and Raphael breathed a sigh of relief. "Raphael, my son, it is good to see you again so soon." The elder rat used his staff to ease his journey across the space.

"Master Splinter!" Raphael's kids stopped him in the centre of the room.  
"And you, children." Splinter welcomed them warmly, gently running his hands over their heads. "It is always a treat when you come to visit."

It was moments like these that Raphael knew exactly why the kids always wanted to come down here. They had a pretty awesome granddad. Splinter had a big heart and there was no two ways about him.

"Company kids; give Master Splinter some air." Raphael got his kids to clear off and herded them to the training area, one sublime purpose in mind: get them busy. "Yoshi, you practice with the katana." He fetched down a wooden practice sword and handed it down. "Tora, Nunchakus today." He looked around for Joi and she already had the wooden Sais in her hands. "Alright, Joi, you stick with those for a bit."

His little girl smiled up at him. "Sais." She pronounced.

"You kids already got wrestling down to the ground." Raphael stressed, "But you need to learn how to be thinking about what fighting's all about and not just working on instinct. That's a big reason why we're practicing with weapons, kids, any kind it don't matter. We wanna get your brains working. They force us to use our brains and those brains are what's gonna get us out of real trouble. Brains and a bit of luck; that's what's gonna keep you safe in the long run."

Raphael made sure each of his kids practiced properly. Once they were each set on practicing a few solid moves he went and joined Splinter at the low-set square little Japanese style coffee table. Splinter poured him a cup of tea and let Raphael sit on the seat mat facing the practice area.

"Thanks, Master Splinter." He stated and set his mind to really enjoying his tea break while his children were engaged. "How's Donny, Master Splinter?"  
"Still busy," Splinter answered back with a frown, "I have not seen him since yesterday and only then it was brief as he woke, drank his coffee and left. He drinks too much coffee but I fear if I threw it out he may not return at all."  
"Of course he wouldn't skip out on you, dad. Don't know about getting rid of the coffee, though. You might have to toss him for the jar."  
"Heh, yes." Splinter chuckled. "I may do just that, Raphael."

Raphael chuckled as well, imagining how that scene might look.

"Sure would like to catch up with him. It's been ages."  
"Your brother is very busy with his work, my son." Splinter added, "All my sons are very busy."  
The word 'all' snapped Raphael's attention straight around. "You seen Leo lately, sensei?"  
"He is alright." Splinter let out a sigh of frustration. "He is very stubborn, Raphael, as you are also very stubborn. You are all each of you stubborn in your own ways."

Guilty, Raphael hung his head. "Yeah, sorry, Master Splinter."  
"The apple does not often fall too far from the tree." Splinter added. "You must be mindful of this, Raphael."  
Raphael double checked that, "You saying you're stubborn too, Master Splinter?"  
"Did I? Indeed." His father turned his head away and back to his cup of tea.

Raphael was sure that meant 'yes' as he also continued drinking his tea in the moment of relative quiet.

It was Splinter that spoke again next. "I suggest you may wait for Donatello, my son, but..." Splinter let out another sigh. "He will be very tired when he returns. He is always very tired."  
"Oh, yeah, like I ain't." Raphael was falling asleep with the sitting down doing nothing job and although his body ached with the thought of getting up he did it anyway.

"Sorry, you know, kids don't train themselves." He apologised and went to alleviate Tora's boredom before Raphael's eldest went on a preschooler sized rampage. It'd be nice to see Donatello but Raphael's visits never seemed to be at the right times. The kids had just fed and in a short while they'd need to be heading off home to be in bed.

"Straighten up, Yoshi. Stay within your control zone, don't overdo your moves. Tora, Nunchakus are not boring little kid things. Besides which, you are a boring little kid so grow up and practice using them already." He looked over at Joi, "Nice and proud, Joi. You're a big brave warrior."

"Raphael."  
He turned from his kids to Splinter. "Yes, sensei?"

Splinter held onto his next words and with a beckoning hand drew Raphael back across the room towards the tea table. "I fear Donatello will again be some time tonight."  
"Oh, come on. I thought you said-."  
"I know what I said, Raphael!" Splinter roused on him and Raphael quit interrupting.

"I was thinking that perhaps you and the children could sleep here for the night. This way you will at least see Donatello in the morning."  
Raphael gaped at Splinter, "But that's ... I won't be able to get them home until ... that's a whole day away from the apartment. I-I'm not sure, that's w-..." Raphael ended in a disturbed sigh. He was unnerved and he wasn't sure exactly why.

"My son, your children will not be leaving your side. Do you truly believe you cannot handle a day without returning to your apartment? It is only a place, Raphael."

Raphael paused, thinking about what about this idea bugged him. It wasn't normal, it wasn't in the routine. The day by day routine that kept him moving forwards, that kept him sane, that kept his kids safe. See Master Splinter, go home, sleep, wake up, teach, feed the kids vegetables, clean, meditate, train, say hi to Mikey, work, scout, feed the kids meat...

"Raphael, I know this is hard for you." Splinter said gently, taking his arm in his claw tipped paw. "If it really is too soon, both I and Donatello will understand." He let go.

Raphael closed his eyes, taking a breath. His own home; where he was the adult, not the kid, the leader; not the follower. He tried taking another slow breath. Break his routine or not see his missing brother for yet another night.

"Why can't Donny just come home early?" Raphael exclaimed.

Splinter patiently watched him.

'Too soon', the words echoed challengingly in Raphael's mind. It had been a while. "Joi's nearly as tall as Yoshi now. It feels like she's still only a couple weeks old."  
"Truly!" Splinter raised an eyebrow, a fragile smile, "You are getting better, Raphael, to remark such a thing. To see and feel time again, I am very glad to see you are improving."

There was a dull ache at the back of Raphael's head that disagreed, "I dunno, it really don't feel like it sometimes," Raphael looked wearily at his sensei. "Thinking's one thing, feeling's whatever; you know."  
"Emotional conviction gives you your strength, my son, but it must be your mind that wields it." Splinter gritted his teeth and clasped his hand to his head. "Oh, I am sorry. I have done it to you once again."

Raphael rubbed his face. "We need to learn how to talk about other stuff, sensei."  
"Yes," Splinter's whiskers twitched, "Erm, how ... has ... uh, the weather, yes, the weather been on the surface?" He asked in a voice so stilted and put on that Raphael couldn't help but laugh. Small talk wasn't Splinter's thing.

"Nice try, dad."  
Splinter put his hand on Raphael's arm. "Stay, my son."  
Raphael sighed. "Yeah, I'll give this sleepover thing a go. It'll be good for the kids."  
"And you, my son, to take this step forward."  
"It's not that big a deal." Raphael brushed it off. "It's just one day at the old lair. It ain't like I'm battling a demon."  
"No, Raphael, for you, the tengu would be easier to deal with."

The idea of fighting demons right now made Raphael yawn. "I know it's a hard push, but-."  
Splinter nodded, "there is a routine you wish to follow. My son, believe it or not I do know something of raising small children."  
"Yeah." Raphael chuckled affectionately, remembering his own upbringing. "Thanks, dad. For all that crazy stuff you did and said that never made sense to me back then."

"There is clean bedding in the linen cupboard." Splinter delicately manoeuvred. "Come."

A minute later and Raphael was setting out three sleeping mats on the floor of his old bedroom.

He'd never been the sentimental type but seeing his old hammock and pile of motorcycle magazines made him disturbed about how long it'd been. He picked up the top magazine with the flash of red on the cover. Donny's absence nagged at Raphael almost as much as Leo's did. Now there was a turtle sighting that never happened. Leo. Splinter always avoided talking about him.

"Are you alright, my son?" Splinter asked from the doorway, holding a warm woollen blanket.  
"Yeah. Hey, Mikey's in tomorrow, ain't he?"  
"Yes. He is very dependable. Michelangelo has told me many times of how happy he is to baby-sit for you."

Raphael had a sudden insight over what tomorrow might look like. "I wouldn't wanna push 'em on him for too long, though. They're my kids and my responsibility. I'm the one who went for the parenting gig; not him."  
"You take things so very seriously, Raphael; you know your brother does not." Splinter turned away, "Michelangelo adores being an uncle."

"Yeah," Raphael shrugged and got up off the floor, putting the magazine back on the pile. "Say, how long has it been since Leo and me were both here together?"  
Splinter hesitated, "Tora is two years old, my son."  
"Then that's two years and ..." Raphael stopped, staring after his father. "But ... that makes Joi five months."  
"Yes, it does."  
"She's five months old?" Raphael stared back at his father. Had four months really gone by just like that?

Splinter blinked, "I can see you are very tired, my son. Perhaps you would like to rest now?"

"I can't." Raphael argued, "The kids go down in an hour." He sighed, rubbing his head. "But if you're alright with minding them, I'd like to go meditate for a bit."  
"Yes, that would be a good idea, my son." Splinter agreed.

Raphael passed on to the training area and hugged his kids. "We're sleeping over for the day, kids." He told them, "I've set up beds in your dad's old bedroom for you, but otherwise we're going to do the things we always do. It'll be just that we'll be here with Master Splinter around. Okay?"

"What about Uncle Casey and Aunty April?" Yoshi asked worriedly.  
"They're still around. It ain't like they don't know this place, or where to find us or nothing. It's all the same, just that we're here, not up in the apartment. Hey, Joi, 'you alright or are you in space?"

Joi turned her head back to look at him and mutely nodded.  
"What was that, you're in space you say?"  
Joi pulled a face back at him.  
He chuckled and ran his fingers over her head.

"You play on for a bit, kids. Granddad's right here and Casey and April are watching the place so if you got any troubles there's plenty of adults to go around."

Raphael stood up and his kids went straight back to playing. Joi was five months old, the fact echoed back at him. He headed over to the meditation room.

"Tora was talking at her age."

In the meditation room Raphael lit three candles and sat them in front of him, focusing on the flames, his three children in his mind, the third one Joi. It wasn't that Joi couldn't talk; she certainly had a voice box. And it wasn't that Joi couldn't hear; she certainly could do what she was told. She could hear, she could vocalise; she just didn't feel like speaking English right now, that was it. Did time really heal all wounds? Was Joi being stubborn like he was? Beyond all reason needing a time out as the rest of the world clocked in, did their jobs and clocked out? But Raphael did do a job, and he was working, not just as a father, other people relied on him too, especially since...

Raphael shuddered, the feeling of loss threatening to crash in on him again. He opened his eyes, staring back at the flames, trying to regain his mental strength.

"See, this is why I hate meditating."

He concentrated on the three flames. Focus the mind, control the mind, mind and body in harmony. That was all great in theory, really. Pity, Raphael admitted to himself, he wasn't great with theory. His mind wandered onto more practical things. Like tomorrow when the kids woke up, and what about their dinner? Snacking on pizza crusts wouldn't get his little children to grow up fast enough to defend themselves in this demon infested city. Even down in the sewers there were things too big for them to do battle with. On Mikey's reckoning broccoli might help grow them up, but Raphael fed them that at lunchtime already. His kids had to eat out for dinner and he always set that up once he'd finished up with Alpha Team. It just had to be the same routine because that was what worked. Tomorrow was just about slotting Donatello and Splinter into the mix.

Once Raphael felt a bit more relaxed knowing how he was going to handle tomorrow he gave up on the meditation thing for tonight and blew out the candles. It was time for the kids to go off to bed.

Raphael stepped out of the room and purposefully detoured to Donatello's work area, "Where's that book we've been going at, April...?" He spied the faded green paperback on top of the set top box and grabbed it, tucking it into his belt sash by his left Sai. He spun around and strode back over to the recreation area.

His trio were standing around Splinter, following his stretching exercises. They saw Raphael and snapped to attention.  
"Come on, bed time. Say goodnight to Master Splinter, kids." He stated, directing them to Splinter.  
"Goodnight, Master Splinter." Yoshi chimed.  
"Night, granddad." Tora stated.  
"Joi?" Raphael prompted, but Joi only went up and hugged her grandfather. Yoshi and Tora joined her in an instant.  
"Goodnight, children." Splinter said warmly, running his hand over their heads. "Sleep well."

Raphael had them brush their teeth in the bathroom with most of Michelangelo's spare toothbrush stash and then walked them over to his old bedroom. They crawled onto their mats and curled up. Raphael brought the large woollen blanket up over their little shells. He remembered them all so tiny that they fit into his hands.

He pulled out the book from his belt. "Alright," he flicked through the yellowed pages of the old paperback, "What was Alice up to the other night, anyone remember?"

"Alice met the Queen of Hearts, dad, and she kept saying 'off with their heads' and Alice had to rescue the cards." Yoshi stated.  
"And then they tried to get the Cheshire Cat too." Tora added.  
"Oh, yeah, that's right." Raphael flicked, "The case of the disembodied cat head. Funny. So that leaves us with chapter nine."

 _" 'You can't think how glad I am to see you again, you dear old thing!' said the Duchess, as she tucked her arm affectionately into_ _Alice_ _'s, and they walked off together. Alice was very glad to find the Duchess was in a good mood, and thought to herself that perhaps it was only the pepper that had made her so savage when they met in the kitchen. 'When I'm a Duchess,' she said to herself, (not in a very hopeful tone though), I won't have any pepper in my kitchen at all. Soup does very well without - Maybe it's always pepper that makes people hot-tempered,-'_ "

Raphael stared at the words on the page, "Yeah, you just keep thinking that, kid. Wish life were that simple."

 _" 'She went on, very much pleased at having found out a new kind of rule, 'and vinegar that makes them sour - and chamomile that makes them bitter - and sugar that make Uncle Mikey sweet-tempered."_

He looked up at his kids and their closed eyelids, "and demon meat makes all good little turtle-dragons grow up tall and strong." He closed the book, hearing their soft breathing. "Sleep well, kids." Raphael said in quiet affection. "I'll join you in a bit, alright?"

Raphael went across the open living area and dropped the book back down at the workbench. He looked around at Donatello's techno gadget stuff. Splinter was probably over in the kitchen. He felt his mind slurred as he looked at a stray screwdriver on the bench. It was like a disarming code; put the kids to bed and he was instantly nodding off to sleep himself.

"Where're you up to with your geek stuff, Donny?" Raphael yawned. "Missiles that can seek out demon heat signatures? What else to beat that seizamatronic demonametric ..." He yawned excessively, "whatever ray gun thing you built for Mikey. It packs a real punch." He remembered seeing the light show on the cameras at his workplace, "You'll be hard-up topping that."

He picked up something that looked like a Geiger-counter lying on a bunch of papers. "Radiation?"

"Perhaps you should retire also, Raphael, my son."  
He looked over at his father standing by his side.  
"You've had a long night at work and a long day taking care of three young informative children."  
Raphael nodded, "How did you do it, dad?" He looked at Splinter.  
"I confess, Raphael, the times back then were not so perilous. Goodnight, my son. Rest well."  
"Goodnight, Master Splinter."

Getting to his room, Raphael stepped around his sleeping children and climbed into his old hammock. He closed his eyes. Casey and April were on shadow duty outside the lair, and tonight he had the added security of his own father's presence. No sudden noises from neighbours, no foreign presences from demons, just a peaceful blank sleep waiting for him.

Raphael turned over. He knew where Michelangelo was, out on the streets, working. He knew where Donatello was, in his lab across town, working. But where the heck Leonardo was he had no idea and why wasn't old Splinter spilling?

Peaceful sleep, pfft, yeah right. Not without having all three of his brothers accounted for.


	5. Ch1 P5 The Donatello Encounter

**Chapter One**

 **There Are Four Turtles**

* * *

 **Part 5**

 **The Donatello Encounter**

* * *

Raphael drifted through sleep, the lull of his thoughts around what Splinter knew about Leonardo's absence. He woke up to hearing the latch on the outer door of the lair.

"Casey." He muttered quietly, "This is messing up my day, here." Although his bones felt a bit better for the rest so it must have been some few hours at least. Raphael stepped out and watched the inner door, the code beeped in acceptance and the door cracked open.

A black armour suited turtle shape emerged complete with motorcycle helmet on his head stood there, frozen, his hand still on the door handle. "R-Raph?" The helmet had an in-built speaker which made the voice sound thick and dark but the tentative measure was an instant giveaway.

"What are you standing there for?" Raphael roused, "Don't let the Geeblas in, Donny, geez."

Donatello closed the door and took off his helmet. He came and briefly hugged Raphael's neck. "You have no idea how much I've missed you these last couple of months, Raph." Donatello pulled away. "There's been a dozen times I've wished I had you at work with me."

"Heck no," Raphael pulled a face, "You're not telling me you're having trouble in that job of yours? I'll pound the creep who's roughing you up."  
"Rough?" Donatello repeated as he shed his armour, "No, no, it isn't that so much ..."  
"Wait a sec, Donny, let's get into the kitchen and deal with this on a full stomach."

Donatello hung his outfit up on the coat stand and Raphael led him to the kitchen. Raphael could see Donatello was missing the nap he'd personally just had.

"I think I've really had it this time." Donatello sat down grumpily behind his empty bowl as Raphael brought out the milk bottle from the fridge. "Progress just doesn't look like this to me. But Bishop won't listen."  
"So you threw down with these jokers tonight?" Raphael went ahead and poured some milk into his own bowl and then added some cereal, leaving the packet in front of his brother.

"Yesterday, actually. It's taken me a bit to calm down."  
"I would've liked seeing you steamed up. You still have a bit of the 'calm-after-the-storm' look." Any discussions that were over the table he could keep fairly out of the geek realm.  
"Jokers," Donatello chuckled, "They do take themselves very seriously. Mikey's pointed that out to me a lot of times."  
"Yeah, well, you should listen to Mikey." Raphael winced, "You didn't hear that from me."

Donatello was in an instant fit of hysterics.

"Geez," Raphael went round the table and dragged Donatello up to a stand, "Forget breakfast, Donny, you just get to bed."  
"He-ey!" Donatello sounded jostled, "Just because you're a dad, doesn't make you everyone's dad."  
Raphael let go of Donatello, "Alright, Don, just for the record, my kids are smarter than you're being right now." He went around the table and sat back down to finish the cereal he'd started. "They know their dad don't mess around telling them stuff they don't need to hear." He put another spoonful of muesli in his mouth.

Donatello stared at him, "That's it? Raph; I had a huge argument with Stockman, and then I went a round with Bishop. I've been up and down the sewers for hours slicing and blasting at every demon I could come up against to get over the burn and I'm ready to go with you. Tell me; how stupid it is to try and work with these people. That I'm dreaming to want to expect results. And not the 'holding the fort' kind!" Donatello gritted.

Raphael swallowed, feeling on the back-foot. "Sorry; you're in over my head, Donny. My job 'is' holding the fort. All I'm good for is standing my ground. You're asking the wrong brother. You wanna talk to-."

"Leo isn't here, Raph!" Donatello exclaimed, "Leo's never been here since this whole horrible invasion started. Who knows what's happened to him. Maybe he got blasted by one of those portals like Bishop is so paranoid about."

"Splinter says Leo's fine; he's just been busy."  
"Oh, here we go." Donatello scoffed unappreciatively.  
"Look, I know it's got under your shell." Raphael gritted, "I ain't happy about Leo skipping out either, Donny, but we've all been busy. We can't just expect-."

"I'll tell you what we can't expect!" Donatello erupted, standing up. "We can't expect Leo to come back ready to be the leader again! You've got your own team at work, Raph, and your own kids at home! It's all the same principle. So quit holding the fort already and 'do-something'!"  
"I'm gonna be doing something in a minute!" Raphael looked warningly up at him. "Be normal, Don, everyone else is in bed." Raphael shovelled another spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

"This isn't status quo we're talking about, Raphael; we're losing New York to these demons! How do you expect me to sleep when no one else around here is willing to do anything about solving this problem?"

Raphael swallowed, "Hey, I didn't say I wasn't willing, I said I wasn't cut out for it," he corrected. "Now you already had it out with Bishop and it sounds like you made a real big dent in the sewer population tonight so give up on it for a bit, Donny, take a break; relax. I promise I'll still be here when you wake up. You know me, Donny; give me an idea and I'll run with it, tell me what to do and I'll do it."

Donatello yawned. "Yeah, alright. You better be serious about being here later, though, Raph. I really do need your help on this."  
"I ain't that smart, Don." Raphael felt urged to remind him.  
Donatello scoffed. "Smart leaders, Raph, are just the ones that put smart people into their team. It's as simple as that."

"Ah, well, if that's all you want then it's settled." Raphael grinned, feeling sweetly victorious, "You wanna be on my team then you're on my team, Don. Now as your team leader I'm telling you to get to bed coz you're gonna do me no good tomorrow night being overtired like you are now."

Donatello's bloodshot eyes peered at Raphael through his purple mask. A weary smile flittered across his features, recognising the win and the concession. "Alright, I'm going to bed, Raph. Goodnight."

"See you when you wake up, Don."

After Raphael heard his brother's door close, he finished his breakfast and pushed back his chair. "It's a slim chance but maybe I can still get back to sleep here." He rinsed his empty bowl and left it in the sink, headed back to his hammock, stepping carefully around his kids, climbed in and shut his eyes.

He had no idea how he could give Donatello the answer he wanted to the demon invasion. If the tech team at work had the answer they would've gone for it already. Raphael turned over in the hammock. On the other hand, the real thing bugging Donatello was working with people who didn't share his keen Ninja focus. Raphael imagined Stockman endlessly nattering in Donatello's ear slit, making himself all the more annoying with his ability to confabulate the truth. Bishop's ability to multitask would also be frustrating; no doubt he was continuing his alien genetics projects outside of Donatello's radar. Donatello would be constantly rechecking himself on the full scope effects of every single one of his designs before giving it over to Bishop.

That was too much hard work in Raphael's opinion. No wonder Donatello always looked overtired. He had to double think his first thought on everything.

Soon enough the door beeped and a set of footfalls followed. "That's Mikey back from patrol." Raphael muttered peacefully and finally drifted off to sleep to the sound of the shower running.


	6. Ch1 P6 The More Things Change

_Disclaimer:_ _Thank you Warner Brothers and Merry Melodies for the empirical debate suitable for all ages._

* * *

 **Chapter One**

 **There Are Four Turtles**

* * *

 **Part 6**

 **The More Things Change**

* * *

 _Late Tuesday Morning_

 _Raphael ran down the endless sewer tunnels, at last coming out into a large busy room. He looked around, catching his breath. He was in a courtroom, the husband and his hot-headed wife were sitting on their thrones and their son was sitting chained up in the prisoner's box._

 _"Geez, you'd think being his parents they'd just settle this with a lecture followed by a long list of chores." Raphael frowned. He saw a bunch of red jam-covered heart-shaped tarts on the table in the middle of the courtroom. He looked over at the creatures in the jury box. Birds, and a couple mangy looking animals including Bill the Lizard. They were busy scribbling on miniature chalkboards._

 _"Hang on; the hearing ain't even started yet." Raphael frowned, turning to April who'd dragged him over to this kangaroo court in the first place. "What are they writing?"_ _  
 _"They're putting down their names." April said. "For fear they should forget them before the end of the trial."_  
 _"Rii-ight," Raphael rolled his eyes, "Stupid things."__

 _"Silence in the court!" The White Rabbit hollered._

 _"Oh, it's you again." Raphael gritted quietly through his teeth, staring acidly at the White Rabbit, noticing the King peering suspiciously around with his glasses to see anyone still talking._ _  
 _Raphael looked over and saw one of the jurors writing 'stupid things' on his chalkboard.__

 _He shook his head, looking back over at the Knave in the chains, 'so, these being the jury, that poor sap over there won't stand a chance,' he though to himself. Then Bill's pencil started squeaking and the sound jack-hammered through Raphael's head. Using his keen Ninja skills, Raphael snuck round the back and snatched the offensive pencil off the lizard without the lizard seeing him._ _  
 _'Hallelujah.' Raphael moved off, snapping the pencil in two and for want of a better place, threw it away under the feet of a nearby guinea pig.__

 _"Herald, read the accusation!"_ _  
 _The White Rabbit blew his trumpet three times, undid the rolled up scroll in his hands. "The Queen of Hearts she made some tarts, All on a summer day: The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts, and took them quite away!" He read in April's voice.__

 _"Funny, April; they don't look stolen sitting there on the table. Ain't even in an evidence bag."_ _Raphael yawned, the court room fading away from his mind, hearing the sound of April's voice continuing._

'Where are my kids? They're being too quiet.'

Raphael jolted awake realising everything was too peaceful. He looked down to discover three empty mats on the floor below. "Uh, great," he climbed out of his hammock, looking again at the empty mats. Late nights always meant messed up mornings and weird and obnoxious kids the whole day long.

Then he was properly paying attention to the goings on in the living area and understood; April was reading to the children the Alice in Wonderland book he'd started with them a few visits ago.

 _" 'I can't help it,' said_ _Alice_ _very meekly: 'I'm growing.'_  
 _'You've no right to grow here,' the Dormouse said._  
 _'Don't talk nonsense,' said_ _Alice_ _more boldly: 'you know you're growing too.'_  
 _'Yes, but I grow at a reasonable pace,' said the Dormouse: 'not in that ridiculous fashion.' And he got up very sulkily and crossed over to the other side of the court."_

"Oh, thank you, April." Raphael breathed, stepping out of the bedroom. He could see April over on the floor in front of the TV, her thick red hair done up in her usual pony tail and wearing a green jacket, purple T-shirt and green slacks. His kids were in a semi-circle in front of her, paying attention and more importantly behaving themselves. April had successfully managed to contain the pre-school trio in something like their routine. He went and sat in on April's reading session.

 _" 'You may go,' said the King, and the Hatter hurriedly left the court, without even waiting to put his shoes on._ _  
 _'-and just take his head off outside,' the Queen added to one of the officers: but the Hatter was out of sight before the officer could get to the door.'_  
 _'Call the next witness!' said the King.__ Good morning, Raph." April smiled at him and his kids crawled over for a morning hug.

"I don't know how I'd get by without you guys." Raphael said to April, hugging his content kids.  
April shrugged, "Hey, that's what family's for. I should probably get back onto the perimeter, though; this place is a lot bigger than the apartment."  
"It shouldn't be too bad now." Raphael stated. "The sun's up and we have a ton of backup lying around." He nodded back towards Michelangelo and Donatello's bedrooms. "You should get your sleep in."

April hugged Tora. "Be good for your dad, kids. Your Uncle Casey and me are just a shout out away, okay?"

Raphael was grateful for that. Until he'd gotten the routine down, Raphael had gotten his shell up against a wall more times than he could count and it wasn't alway just in trying to find the kids food. April stood up and gave the tattered old book to him, warmly clasping his shoulder for a moment before vanishing into a dark cloud and leaving.

Raphael looked at the paperback in his hands. "So, where're we up to with Alice then, kids?"  
"The next witness!" Tora answered immediately.

Yoshi stated, "The Queen and King think the Knave stole the Queen's tarts, dad, so they're having a trial to see if it's true."  
"The Hatter wasn't very helpful." Tora added. "He was a real lightweight."  
"Yeah, well, remember Lord Simultaneous stuck him on tea time so he's been missing out on his meat and his vegetables." Raphael supposed. "Come on, let's have some juice."

He got up and led them over to the kitchen. Raphael fetched out four glasses from the cupboard and put them on the table as his kids climbed up onto their seats.

"Is that why the coyote never wins, dad?" Tora asked, sitting down between Joi and Tora at the red and white checker clothed table. "Because he's too hungry for meat? Like the Hatter?"  
Raphael looked at his children as he put a glass down in front of each of them, "You mean that old cartoon, Tora?"  
"Yeah, the road runner. Why doesn't the coyote ever win?"

Raphael opened the fridge, pondering the question. "... Because it's just a cartoon." Raphael decided on his answer as he watched the juice bottle in the fridge. "Because humans don't want to see the road runner lose." He took a breath, "Because they don't like their kids learning about death sooner than they have to." He grabbed the juice and shut the fridge as he untwisted the lid on the bottle.

"Oh." Yoshi uttered, downfallen.  
"What?" Raphael prompted his younger son, coming forwards and pouring out the juice into the four glasses, "You come up with a different reason why the coyote would lose, Yoshi?"  
Yoshi nodded. "I was thinking that the road runner was secretly the owner of ACME and he's rigging all the weapons."  
Raphael blinked, "Uh, yeah, the classic industrial espionage and syndicate boss trick; that'd help." He chuckled and ran his fingers over Yoshi's head, "Clever one, kid."

"Oh, I dunno." Tora snarked, "He's only just been thinking about it a-all week!"  
"Alright," Raphael traipsed back to the fridge with a sweetly victorious smile and came back sans the juice bottle, "So it's your turn, Tora. What have you been thinking about 'all' this week?"  
Joi cracked up into a fit of laughter before Tora had time to think up a single word in answer.  
"You little punk!" Tora's eyes flew open.  
"Oops!" Joi slid off her seat and ran away from the table, still giggling.  
"I'm so-oo gonna get you!" Tora dashed out after her.  
Raphael looked over at Yoshi quietly sipping his juice, "I should probably break them up, what d'you reckon, Yoshi?"  
Yoshi calmly shook his head. "Joi's going to win anyway, daddy. She's like the road runner."

Raphael sat down opposite Yoshi. "You don't even care that Tora had a go at you, do you, Yoshi?"  
"No, daddy," Yoshi pulled a face back at him; "You always tell us that words are osci-obser-."  
"Obfuscation tactics," Raphael smiled down at Yoshi, "So what's the truth about your brother, you reckon?"  
"Tora doesn't really want to think about stuff, dad. He just wants to play."

"He don't get why he has to learn yet." Raphael stated, "He doesn't want to think coz he don't get why yet." Raphael looked seriously at Yoshi, "And you, you think too much, Yoshi, that's what Uncle Donny does. Which is great coz he's so clever and solves tons of problems, but it's not so great when he's gotta stick up for himself."  
"But you said it doesn't matter, daddy!" Yoshi answered back, annoyed and indignant.  
"Yeah, that's a lot better, kid." Raphael approved, "Keep it up; I reckon you got this."  
Yoshi slumped back in his chair and rested his head against the wooden back with a sigh, "Now I'm really kung fu'ed."  
"Just keep focusing on the important stuff, Yoshi. Look after the important stuff and stick out for it."

He waited another breath. "Joi, Tora, call a truce and come and get your drinks."

A moment later Tora slinked back into the kitchen and Joi bounced in, climbing up onto her chair at the table. No second guesses over who won that argument.  
"You know, kids, there's another reason the road runner always wins." Raphael picked up his juice glass, "That bird might be travelling fast, but he's always paying attention to his surroundings. The coyote gets caught up in the chase. When you're being chased, you're on the lookout for everything. But when you're the chaser, well, watching your back ain't the first thing on your mind. You gotta scope out everything that's around. Wind, rain, humans. A crunchy chip packet, a slippery banana skin. You gotta own that space you're in or you won't know where the next punch line is coming from."

Out of the corner of his eye Raphael saw Joi stick her tongue out at Tora.  
"Oi! Da-ad, she's doing it again." Tora complained.  
"What, am I talking to myself here?" Raphael looked around the table.  
"I'm listening, dad." Yoshi insisted boldly.  
"Teacher's pet," Tora snarked.  
"Cut it out you two..." Raphael glanced over at Joi, "three. Don't think your dad ain't wise to your game, Joi." He looked over at Tora, "You can't let little things bug you, Tora; it ain't worth it."  
"Yeah, 'really' little." Tora snarked as he looked at Joi. He pointedly pressed thumb and first finger together.  
Joi merely stuck her tongue out at him again.  
" 'You impersonating the road runner there, Joi?" Raphael asked.  
Joi giggled, "Beep beep."

Raphael sat back in his chair. It was probably better he moved them onto a less philosophical lesson than keep trying for this one. Maybe the fact that Joi was so good at teasing him would toughen Tora up in the longer run. Maybe he'd give up on the verbal jousting department entirely seeing how Yoshi had already learnt how to turn shell. "Come on, kids, finish your juice and lets go do some maths together."

The day went by studiously. Raphael was keen on the snores of his two brothers as he did maths followed by a session of core focus exercise but there was only so long his kids could sit before they really needed to run around. Plus if they didn't get tired soon they wouldn't have their afternoon nap. Raphael lose his usual meditation session? He was really holding out for a moment alone before he went to work and had to start dealing with 'those' guys. So tossing up on him losing his cool at work and the kids waking his brothers up now the answer was pretty obvious.

"Let's take a break." He stated, "Go play, kids."

Raphael wandered off as the inevitable hubbub started up behind him. He grabbed up a stray cup on Donatello's workbench and glasses he saw on the coffee table on his way into the kitchen and then dumped them into the sink to clean. A moment alone with dishes was still not a moment alone. But since his kids liked their water and their juice it was a job that needed doing and he was the turtle tall enough for the job.

An adult yawn sounded up behind him, "Morning bro."

With his hands still in amongst the bubbles, Raphael raised an eyebrow, looking over his shoulder at Michelangelo in his orange bandanna rummaging in the fridge, "Afternoon, Mikey." He corrected.

Michelangelo dumped a large plate of cold pizza on the table. "Want some?" He pushed the plate into the centre of the table.  
"Yeah, thanks." Raphael put the last glass in the drying rack and sat down opposite Michelangelo.  
"So. Stayed over huh?" His brother prompted him.

Raphael picked up a slice, "Yeah. It's about the only way I'm ever going to see Donny. Seems like if he's not working he's asleep. He's better off asleep if you ask me. Our brother puts up with way too much from that brain in a jar." He bit into the pizza. The taste of peanut satay and a burst of sugary lime told him this was Mike's cooking. "Uch, there's a nasty surprise; I thought that was gonna be capsicum." Raphael regretted and went on to chew through a burst of berry flavour. "The satay's great, Mike." Raphael stated as strongly as he could once he was over his initial gag reflex, "and you always make the best bases."

"You don't have to eat the jelly beans if you don't want to, Raph." Michelangelo advised parentally, watching his face.  
Raphael looked up at his brother, "I'm not fussy, Mike," Raphael lied, "Besides; there's no way I'm teaching my kids how to be fussy neither." Raphael took another determined bite. "Urh, on the other hand, what are those white ones supposed to taste like?"  
"I have no idea; I've tried them with every kind of topping too." Michelangelo confessed.  
"Let's not go there." Raphael stated and focused on finishing his slice of all-in-one dinner and dessert pizza.

"Raph, I know you've been a bit out of it lately," his brother ventured, "But you did notice the big bad demon apocalypse thingy going on around us, right?"

 _Apocalypse._

It was a double edged word and Raphael shot Michelangelo a warning glare as he swallowed, "Mikey, what've I told you before about thinking too hard?"  
His brother sighed, "Raph, we're living in an apocalypse and I really think it's time you cash in your reality check."  
Raphael growled, "Quit calling it an apocalypse! Everyone ain't dying around us, we're-."  
"Raph! We haven't licked this demon invasion and the flood waters are rising, bro. We've been running around with sandbags holding back the rising tide of demons and it's only getting worse; we can't keep up with it and in my books that spells a-p-."

Raphael stood up and banged his chair into the table. "So it ain't enough for you that my life's been this one big rollercoaster to Never-Neverland and back." Raphael gritted, "And it ain't enough that my looking glass got shattered and my 'I think I can' train got sent to the chop shop and came out 'I know I can't'. So it ain't enough that I'm alone; I have to go through an apocalypse on my own as well!"

Michelangelo stared back at him with a sorry look on his face. "You've still got us, Raph. Master Splinter and Don and me."  
"Geez, Mike. Spell out the hole in the picture too, why don't you?" Raphael commented bitterly.

"I wonder what he's doing." Michelangelo pondered over his food.

"Who, Leo?" Raphael snorted in dark humour. "You never know. Maybe he got himself married to one of King Neptune's daughters and has ten little fish-turtle kids of his own; it happened to me."  
Michelangelo mused on that, "He'd have to have gone to Denmark for that, wouldn't he?"  
"There's an idea; Leo went travelling."  
"On a quest to find kolinahr, yeah." Michelangelo agreed, "That sounds a bit like Leo. But then he could be anywhere on the planet. Even somewhere without 4G network coverage! Actually that's probably exactly where he is. He was probably looking at his shell phone and went, 'yep, I'm out of range; time to set up camp'." Michelangelo took a bite off his crust.

"An off phone also doesn't ring, Mike." Raphael rolled his eyes, "Maybe he's joined Robin Hood's band of Merry Men over in East Europe." Raphael added in exasperation, "He could have joined up with the seven Ninja dwarves down in South America and be travelling with them, rescuing the world, one village at a time. Maybe he fell in love with Snow White, shacked up with her somewhere over in Japan and is right at this minute fighting off their own tengu apocalypse for her honour."

"You really think maybe Leo fell in love, Raph? And that's why he's not here?"  
"No, Mikey, I got the kids' storybooks on my brain; gimme a break." Raphael roused. "My point is Leo's gone off and found his own life without us."  
"So then it's settled that you'll help Donny. Great!"

"Don already asked me and I said I would help him." Raphael scowled at him.  
"Oh. I wish you'd said so before I used the 'a' word." Michelangelo turned to him, "I was just trying to get your attention, bro. Not make you lose your cards."  
Raphael gritted. "I got half a deck to spare you, Mikey."

"It's okay, bro," Michelangelo nodded knowingly, "No one's perfect. Or else we wouldn't be learning anything and then we'd enter into what would hence be referred to as 'the entropic period' which isn't as fun as you think it is because it means countless years of evolutionary stagnation and endless re-runs of The Brady Bunch."

Raphael blankly watched Michelangelo for several seconds after he'd finished talking and started eating the last slice of his pizza. "Say what now? All I got outta that rant was something about The Brady Bunch."  
"Exactly." Michelangelo swallowed, "Do you like The Brady Bunch, Raph?" He pointed at him with his half-eaten piece of pizza.  
"No." Raphael said flatly morose. "I wouldn't wanna go marrying anyone else."

Michelangelo swallowed the last bit of his pizza and got up to shove the plate into the sink. He eased out of the kitchen and Raphael followed him to Donatello's work area. In the background Raphael could see his kids playing with the ball.

"Oh, hey! Morning, Donny." Michelangelo sang.  
"It's still afternoon, Mikey, are you trying to mess up my routine?" Raphael gritted. "I got places to be soon." Raphael stepped aside from Mike to see Donatello wandering over in waking up mode. "You look better, Don."

Michelangelo ignored Raphael, "Don's been working out where all the demons are coming from. Isn't that right, Donny?"  
"Essentially that's the idea; identify the source and block it, only I haven't gotten it very far off the ground yet." Donatello stepped up to the bench and took up the Geiger-counter that Raphael had been looking at last night.

"This can't be it!" Raphael gestured to the Geiger-counter, he just wasn't convinced. At work they had a map the length of the room to help scope out the areas that the portal flashpoints were happening in and prioritise them.  
"Uh, no." Donatello chuckled then frowned. "Of course not, Raph."  
"Good, at least I got that far on my own." Raphael took the unit from his brother and looked at it now he was properly awake. "The way I figure; this'd only help you track something. On foot," he added.

"You're right, Raph; it's only calibrated for demons," Donatello agreed, "And they're the result of whatever it is that's going on. This machine doesn't address the portals. You're right." Donatello frowned, "Still, even though it's just that, it's a bit touchy. Kinda like my workmate, actually, he's the reason why I've been working on it at home. I've been trying to collect more data on the demons, but-."

"No." Raphael felt his stomach starting to turn at the idea of Donatello tracking demons on his own. "Sewer demons are okay, but you're not telling me that-."  
"Yes, I am telling you that! I tried to tell you 'that' last night." Donatello gritted, "I need a closer look at those portals. That's why I need your help."

"So you got mad at Bishop 'coz he won't let you get near enough." Raphael remembered the man, "Mr. Build-A-Better Super Soldier. He wouldn't wanna lose his ticket to securing a better tomorrow."

"Hey, you remember him!" Michelangelo smiled, "You're not that far gone after all, Raphy boy."  
Raphael rolled his eyes at Mike's comment and focused on Donatello, "Sheesh, no wonder you're questioning your sanity, Don. You even got 'me' questioning your sanity now."  
"Was I questioning my sanity?" Donatello frowned, "I know I was a bit tired last night."

Raphael folded his arms calmly, having a beginning answer for this problem now, "Bishop's right, Don. FPA ain't got the right skills to go safely poking around portals."  
"Raph, that-!" Donatello's argument stopped abruptly in mid-sentence. He looked back at Michelangelo and to Raphael again. "You've got something, don't you, Raph?"

Before he could answer, Raphael heard an unsettled sound from the practice area and broke from the group at a run.


	7. Ch1 P7 Hooked on Donatello

**Chapter One**

 **There Are Four Turtles**

* * *

 **Part 7**

 **Hooked on Donatello**

* * *

 _Tuesday Afternoon_

Splinter was there watching the wall and the children in grave intensity, Raphael's trio were in a relaxed fall-back formation alongside their grandfather.

"What?" Raphael stared at the blank wall.  
"Tengu, tata." Joi answered quietly.  
"I believe the children have handled it." Splinter declared, relaxing a little. "It is troubling that these tengu may come through walls without leaving a trace of their passing."  
"Oh, they leave a trace, alright." Raphael stepped up to the wall and sniffed. He ran his hand across the brickwork and showed his father the fine greenish residue, "It was a Twisso." He pronounced. "Lives in brickwork, tries to jump into things that come too close." He looked at his kids. "What hit the wall to wake it up?"

Joi ran off and came back with the orange basketball. She offered it up to him.  
"Must've been a heck of a surprise you kids coming after it on the rebound." Raphael grinned darkly at his kids. "What do you reckon, kids, wanna hit a few more walls with the ball?" He bounced it over to Tora.  
Tora smiled back at him. "Right, dad! Keep up, Yoshi."  
"I'm coming. Come on, Joi."

Raphael chuckled, watching his kids going off in a tidy line. They wouldn't be too hungry for dinner tonight.

"Raphael, is this not the same demon that caught hold of your brother Michelangelo last year?"  
"Yeah, and this place's got a lot of walls and the kids just figured a neat way to get at 'em. I was wondering why I was having trouble sleeping last night even with Casey and April on shadow duty outside. Don't worry. The kids are a team."  
"Yes, that is much reassurance." Splinter agreed, "Raphael, it is good to see you three together again." Splinter stated, "Only I find myself feeling Leonardo's absence all the more keen."

Raphael turned away from the view of his brothers. "Not you too, Master Splinter."

His mood darkened as he looked at his other brothers in deep discussion, "That Leo. He gets some funny ideas sometimes. Two years is a bit long for Leo to spend on one of his good intentions though."  
"Perhaps not so unlikely, Raphael."  
Raphael looked at his father. He knew something and Leo didn't want him letting on to Raphael. "What the heck's he got himself into, sensei? It ain't really Snow White, is it?"

"My son. He asks me the same questions of you." Splinter said matter-of-factly. "Well, except he does not ask after Snow White."  
"So you're saying you ain't getting into the middle of us and you ain't picking sides."  
Splinter let out a defeated sigh, "yes, my son. Just as you find yourself at uncomfortable odds when your children argue."

"It's real funny though, Master Splinter." Raphael gritted in annoyance, thumbing himself, "Because I didn't think I was doing any arguing! It's kind of hard to throw down with someone who ain't even in the ring with you."  
Splinter took a sharp breath and his expression grew severe in an instant. "One may remember things differently."

The memory was vague, "I remember feeling like it had nothing to do with me. It was just before me and Casey met Orinieu." Raphael looked up at Splinter, "I wanted Leo to meet her. Get his opinion on the city dragons. I had to decide without him." Raphael watched his father's furrowed brow, "If we were fighting about something back then it still don't make sense that he ain't here now, sensei."

"Leonardo has been very busy with the things that he has put on his plate." Splinter stated. "If I am to ask such questions of him, I must also ask them of you, Raphael. Are you afraid?"  
"Sure, I'm afraid." Raphael admitted, "But you know me; running away just ain't my style."  
"You are ready to move forward." Splinter nodded, "That is the best news."

Now with even more questions of Leonardo hanging over him, Raphael was uneasy and he stepped over to his brothers.

"Da-ad!" Tora's shrill little voice hit Raphael's ear slits.  
"You started it!"  
"Jo-i, no-o! That isn't help-ing!"  
"Drat. That's the sound of me being late." Raphael acknowledged and changed direction.

"Da-ad, Yoshi-."  
"I don't want to hear it, Tora." He stated firmly. "Fingers and toes, eyes, tongue, teeth, remember. He's your little brother. It's up to the two of you to work it out, not me." Raphael added, "its nap time now." He picked his tired whining boys up by their middles and carried them off with their shells tucked under his arms to the bedroom. "Joi, on my tail." He called for his daughter to follow.

Raphael put Tora down on the first mat and then put the lighter Yoshi down on the far one. "Joi," Raphael looked around to her by his right leg, "You stay in between these two wimps and keep 'em straight, okay?"  
Joi nodded with a mischievous smile and crawled onto the middle mat.  
"I'm not a wimp!" Yoshi argued.  
"No way!" Tora complained.  
"Oh, yeah, you're tired alright, kids." Raphael chuckled, "Get your nap in. You're gonna feel a whole lot better for it."

Raphael stepped back out, closing the door to a crack.

He found Donatello at his workbench currently musing over portal theories. Raphael only really knew two things on the subject: one, this was how the demons were busting in on this dimension and two, who at the office to ask about when and where.

Michelangelo was fetching out a DVD from the nearby storage area. "Wanna watch some classic Godzilla action with me, Raph?"  
"Don't you get enough of that?" Raphael rolled his eyes, "At home?"  
Michelangelo chuckled, "Thought I'd brush up on some babysitting techniques."  
"Sure, Mikey, good thinking." Raphael rubbed his head. Tora's whining wore him out real fast. "I gotta go meditate."  
"I think Master Splinter's already in there." Michelangelo mentioned as Raphael headed away to the meditation area.

"Yeah, somehow I don't blame him." Raphael replied. He glanced over at his purple masked brother, "Don, remember that great invention involving a bowl and a spoon?"

In the meditation room Raphael got three spare candles from the cabinet and lit them up. He set them down in front of his father. Splinter nodded in acknowledgement as Raphael sat down. Neither of them said anything and Raphael set to quietening his mind of the trouble around him. Donatello's anxiety, Leonardo's fear, Tora's challenges, Yoshi's challenges, Joi's challenges and Michelangelo's demon apocalypse; they all needed his attention.

* * *

After a while Raphael came back out of his meditation session. His children were awake again and right now Joi and Yoshi were pestering Donatello. Raphael looked around and saw Tora practicing some more with the wooden katana. Tora really reminded Raphael of Leo sometimes… when he was behaving.

"Centre focus, Tora." He joined his son for the moment, "You never move more than you have to."  
"Why, dad?"  
"Waste of energy." Raphael answered him. "And you gotta remember to leave yourself room to fend off a counterattack. See?" Raphael slow-paced a counterattack move, "He can get in right under you."  
"He has to be really smart to do that." Tora argued.  
"So you're never gonna fight a smart guy?" Raphael raised an eyebrow at his son, "What happens if you're fighting two not-so-smart guys?"

Tora had a look of horror on his face at the idea of being ganged up on. "Omigosh!"  
Raphael nodded, "The faster you get back to your centre the faster you can make your next move."  
"No kidding, wow." Tora beamed up at him, "thanks, dad."

Raphael patted his son's head and passed on by to Joi and Yoshi at Donatello's side. Donatello was explaining how the Geiger-counter worked.

Donatello nodded up at him and looked back at Yoshi and Joi. "So what do you think, Joi?"  
Joi screwed up her face and shook her head. She went and grabbed Raphael's hand and pulled him a step over. She then folded her arms facing Donatello.  
"Joi, that's not very polite." Yoshi stated, "Uncle Don put a whole lot of work into making his toy."  
Joi shook her head again.  
Raphael looked at Donatello feeling a little mystified, "What's this about?" He looked down at Yoshi and ran his fingers over Joi's head, "Look, go play, you two, Uncle Mikey's over there on the couch, I'm sure his movie's 'nearly' finished."

Yoshi and Joi ran off and Raphael looked at Don, "Seriously, what was that about, Don?"  
"I was just asking them what they thought about the demon detector."  
"Oh, so that's what you're calling it." Raphael looked at the Geiger-counter, "So there you go. Joi reckons it don't make up for plain old-fashioned Ninja sense."

"Joi isn't talking yet? Sorry, Raph." Donatello was apologetic.  
"She's not old enough yet." Raphael defended angrily.  
"Well, she's sure smart enough." Donatello asserted.  
"Thanks." Raphael looked at Don. "No secrets between brothers?"  
"Uh, no." Donatello smiled gently, "You can tell there's nothing wrong with her hearing. You only have to ask her a question. She mightn't use words but she'll still shake her head or do something else to answer you."

Raphael sighed, "Nothing wrong with her voice box either. I can usually get a few words out of her after she's had something to eat. A snippet of Japanese, or Scandinavian. Nothing in English yet, though."  
"That's great news!" Donatello was positive.  
"She doesn't 'just talk', Don, you have to really press her."  
"Raph, I hate to break it to you, but I don't 'just talk' a whole lot either. So you're probably pushing for something that's not even a big deal. She can talk, she doesn't want to talk. I get that. I get that a whole lot, actually."

"You get that?" Raphael raised an eyebrow. "Now I'm really worried." He teased.  
Donatello snorted, "Yeah, in a few years your daughter could be on the NASA science team."  
Raphael felt a twinge of guilt. "You should be on the NASA science team."  
"Nobody's had much time with all these demons on the loose around here." Donatello gritted, "Mikey says I'm suffering from information withdrawal. They don't tell me everything; not because they're hiding stuff, but because they don't think I need to know it." Donatello sighed, "I guess I never had that problem with you guys because we were in together on everything."

"Well, 'you' may have been." Raphael corrected, "Me and Mikey, especially Mikey, we got what you call 'information overload' sometimes."  
Donatello folded his arms, "Well, I'm not that kind of turtle."

Raphael huffed, "You sure ain't, Donny." He looked away to Joi climbing up the back of the sofa to appear by Michelangelo's head. Joi wasn't an unhappy kid; just quiet. "You really think I gave that to her?"  
"Could be." Donatello answered in a friendly tone, "She probably finds her brothers talk enough for all three of them, so she can get out of it and focus on thinking."  
"Well, she ain't getting out of it around me!" Raphael objected loudly, folding his arms.

Now Don was struggling to keep from laughing.  
"Oi." Raphael complained. "I'm being serious here, Don."  
"Sorry, you just, Joi's face earlier ... you ..." Donatello sighed, shaking his head. "She's grown a whole lot since I last saw her. I'm sorry I've been so busy."  
"Well, you can look forward to retiring soon." Raphael directed. "Because I've got news for you, Don: the FPA ain't the only ones working the demon problem. You're not the only one going on about portals you know."

Donatello was excited and grabbed his arms, "Your friends've found an answer?"

"I don't think so, Don. If we had, we'd have already done it." Raphael pushed him back, "But if you wanna get more data on the demons then you're better off hanging around with the people that can get you closer to them without the risk of you getting torn limb from limb." Raphael paused, thinking, "I suppose we're spending another night sleeping over. That way if it turns into a longer night, the kids still have Master Splinter to look after them when Mike has to go off to work."

Donatello suddenly grabbed him in another neck-wringing hug. "Thanks, Raph."  
"You alright, Don?" Raph asked, disturbed, "I'm sorry it's been so long."  
Don stepped back, "It still bugs me, what Stockman knows, what I don't know."  
Raphael was pretty confident of that answer. "Super soldiers and genetics, geez, Don, you really need help with that? The only part of the tune that's changed is that they want to target demons."

"I sure hope they're not playing with demon genes!" Donatello emphasized, "You saw what that wall demon did to Mikey."  
"You gotta let Bishop learn the way he's gonna learn."  
"You're right." Donatello sighed. "I need out."  
"You are out, Don, you're on my team now. Get what you need done with Stockman to lick this problem but then that's it. You ain't cheating. It ain't a contest..." Raphael paused, looking at Donatello's tragic face. "Oh, so it's Stockman's contest, is it? Then just let him think he won. Nobody else cares, hey; you reckon Bishop cares so long as the job gets done?"

"No." Donatello answered, "No, I don't think so." Donatello sighed, "You're right, Raph."  
Raphael gazed at Donatello, "You've still got all your limbs, Don; I'd say you've won every fight with Stockman by default."  
"I'm not fighting with him!" Donatello emphasised, "what I am is harassed, and cajoled and ... and teased and harangued and I am so sick of his preaching! 'I, the great and oh-so-superior Doctor Stockman!' On and on! Raph, he doesn't have an off switch, I've looked!"

"Cool it, Don." Raphael folded his arms. "All you gotta do to beat him is put your name on your stuff."  
The green of Donatello's cheeks deepened, "Oh, you... don't think that's a bit ... you know?"  
Raphael shrugged. "Hey, it's your stuff."  
Donatello let out a breath.

Raphael shook his head. "It's getting onto six and I've got to settle the kids before I get to work."  
"Can I come?" Don asked.  
"Well, knowing you, you're going to need to check out the lab first." Raphael considered, "I'll be leaving you on your own with the skeleton crew, but-."  
Donatello shrugged, "You say 'lab' and I'm set."

Raphael shrugged, "So it's sorted then. I'm just gonna settle the kids first."  
"Cool." Donatello stated happily.

Raphael found his trio sitting around the low square tea table by Michelangelo, listening to Splinter telling them a story.

Splinter paused in his description of the bone demon, looking up at Raphael. "You are leaving, my son?"  
"Work." Raphael knelt down and hugged his children, "Be good for Master Splinter, kids."  
"Hey, what about me?" Michelangelo pouted.  
Raphael eyed his brother wearily, "Don't you get into too much trouble either, Mikey." He mock-punched him.

Raphael caught Joi's tiny giggle and ran his fingers over her head. "Be back soon, kids."

* * *

 **Chapter End**

 **Next Chapter: The Search for Leo.**

* * *

 _A/n: Love to hear your comments and what you want to be seeing in the upcoming chapters._


	8. Ch2 P1 The Battle

_A/n: I welcome any advice and suggestions._

* * *

 **Chapter Two**

* * *

 **The Search for Leo**

* * *

 **Part 1**

* * *

 **The Battle**

* * *

 _Sunset_

The shadows on the rooftops grew long as the last glimmer of the setting sun faded from the sky. A water tower stood off in the distance and everywhere there was a line of Ninja shadows subtly betraying their presence to no one.

Or so they thought.

Atop of the water tower two silhouettes perched; but for the completely black clothes they might have been mistaken for jesters rather than assassins.

"I can't believe you lost Donatello, Yutrass."  
"It is not my fault." Yutrass complained, "The turtle lost his temper, Nutaki."  
"The turtle lost his temper." Nutaki mocked. "Your task was to make him lose his mind."

Yutrass turned his head away, the lengths of his headgear waved slightly in the wind. Far below them was a subtle line of Ninja on the rooftop. "The coffee was working!" Yutrass argued sullenly, "if it were not for Bishop's meddling Michaelangelo would be portal pizza ... it is not like Bishop to interfere with Donatello."

"Bishop! Ha, he must feel our war with the turtles more keenly than you imagine."  
"Do you suppose we make any progress?"  
"We!" Nutaki added more severely, "You have proof of our brother's victory. When was the last Donatello saw of Raphael?"  
"The fallen has not been seen."

Yutrass looked away, back to the lines of Ninja. "I see you have been managing the Foot?" Yutrass changed the subject.  
"Yes. The hour closes upon my victory." Nutaki stated, "Our cousins are just so helpful. Mistress Karai has yet seen anything as large as a Luhtros demon." Nutaki chuckled, "Too bad."  
"Ha," Yutrass snorted, "Stupid vegetarians. They wouldn't come now, would they?"

"It would be amusing if they did. See the power of the war staff, just as Karai divined. Too bad she has not divined her end."

The portal arrived in the sky, spinning hot, bright and extremely large.

Down in the street the Ninja horde waited, watching the portal fizzle into bright circle spinning existence. Even the first titan suit raised a robotic hand to shield it's occupant from the dazzling light.

The portal erupted a split moment later, issuing forth a great rush of displaced air like a sonic boom which hit the ground and causing the street to shake, sending the gathered observers flying. The two titan Ninja machines tumbled weightily to the ground.

 _"Chaplin!" The Foot's leader Mistress Karai worked the controls to get her robotic suit back onto its feet as she called to her chief tech through the intercom. "The portal is gone. Did you get the information?"_  
 _"Yes mistress."_  
 _"Then would you be so kind as to identify this demon?" She demanded._  
 _"It's not like any we've seen before, Mistress Karai."_  
 _Karai cursed silently to herself. "I want its weaknesses identified now!"_

A group of nearby Ninja jumped to get out of the way as the demon struck out at them. Too physically slow to catch them, the demon gurgled grotesquely for a moment and then lifting up its head, spat at a group of Ninja on the ground by its feet. The men screamed in agonised pain.

The demon straightened and let out a roar as the first titan machine levelled a stream of anti-psychic goo at it. Then the second Ninja titan machine pushed the first aside as the demon spat again. The second machine took damage from the projectile but still managed to lift a robotic leg and hit the demon square with a karate kick, bringing it crashing to the ground.

The remaining Ninja on the street took out their swords and rushed at the fallen giant, finishing it off.

 _Karai got her titan machine back to a stand. "Foot Ninja, vanish."_

On the rooftop ledge, the two assassins watched as one slightly melted titan followed the other slightly dinted one, vanishing off over the rooftops back to the Foot building.

Yutrass looked at his silenced companion. "Nutaki, you have not succeeded."  
"I have been too soft!" Nutaki gritted.  
"It was a grand vision, dear brother. It was his grand visions that saw the old master Draco destroyed. Our sworn enemy are warriors, Nutaki; hard of shell and battle ready." Yutrass analysed. "If we're to revenge our old master's death we must make them all as helpless as Raphael was."

Nutaki mused to himself, "If the largest demon the war staff summons will not prove victory, then what about the smallest demon?"  
"Professional help is an idea with merit." Yutrass agreed.  
Nutaki frowned at Yutrass, "Be careful, brother. I don't take insults very well."  
"You are free to insult me." Yutrass hung his head, "I am without an answer at all."

"The wheel may return to the carriage. Watch the Doctor Stockman being."

"I hope that will do." Yutrass frowned. "I can think of nothing else."


	9. Ch2 P2 To Work

**Chapter Two**

* * *

 **The Search for Leo**

* * *

 **Part 2**

* * *

 **To Work**

* * *

 _Sunset Tuesday_

Raphael had a company paid apartment a few blocks over from work so going this pathway through the sewers was novel.

"Look out, Don, things ain't safe 'round here." Raphael mentioned, feeling the psychic vibrations going off around him as well as the cement under his feet taking the footfalls of something even heavier, "Geez, from both sides?" He looked around for an exit up to the street. It was a hundred metres off. New plan needed. He sniffed, getting a faint whiff of rotten meat. "Alright, so it ain't so bad, that's just a Gretchkin on our right." He looked over past Donatello, something glinted, metallic, "But what the heck is that pounding the pavement?"

"It ... it looks like a ... a ..."

"Jump!" Raphael and Donatello jumped and grabbed hold of the pipes overhead as an absolutely enormous mouser trundled T-Rex-like past them and snatched the Gretchkin into its jaws before the scrawny demon knew what was going on.

"Geez, the size of that thing!" Raphael was shocked as he hung from the pipe, watching the mouser downing the turtle-high Gretchkin. "It's huge!"  
"And it's turning around and I think it can reach us!" Donatello fretted, "There's got to be some obvious way to shut it down..."

The mouser shrieked dinosaur-like at them, then cocked its metal head. The red light in its vision receptor turned blue. It lowered its head and trundled off back on its original route.

Raphael let go of the pipe and landed on the floor of the tunnel. "Well, there's a new twist."  
"I-it's been programmed just to attack demons."  
Raphael still wasn't impressed, "Still don't count for brains in my opinion."  
"Oh, come on, Raph, it was pretty helpful, you've got to admit."  
"Helpful? Know your demons, Donny," Raphael scoffed, "That was a Gretchkin. You know how many humans that kind of demon kills?"

"Uh-."

"One every hundred years! They're tricksters, gamesters; lightweights." Raphael gritted, "I'd expect a rookie to kill something a bit more dangerous than that. Geez." Raphael rubbed his face. "I'm gonna see another one before this night's out, ain't I?"'  
"It looked like it was on patrol." Donatello shrugged calmly, "So that answer depends on how much underground you're planning on covering looking for Leo."

Raphael looked at Donatello, "I'm that obvious, huh?"  
"We're all missing him, Raph."

Raphael shook his head. "If we're gonna get free of this we'll need a strategy and Leo always makes the best ones." He turned away and continued heading off towards his workplace.

Donatello followed after him, "Raph, I just want you to know, I asked you to be the leader because I know I can trust you; you always get things done and we really need that. Now you're thinking about finding Leo, and I'm not saying that's a bad idea, but there's something about Leo that you're forgetting."

Raphael hesitated a step and turned to Donatello, "What's wrong with Leo?"  
"The problem is he's 'not' looking for you." Donatello frowned, "He's happy with whatever he's doing."  
"That's all kinds of disturbed, Don." Raphael declared and dismissed the topic.  
"Raph, how many times have you come to my lab at the FPA?"  
Raphael grunted. "It's different, Don, when I know you ain't been hiding."

* * *

It wasn't long before they'd reached the last junction. "We need to go up here." Raphael told Donatello, "this access point will land us up in the lower basement car park and then we can just catch the lift." So saying he climbed the rungs of the ladder, lifted off the cover and then climbed out.

Raphael looked around the gloom of the cavernous cement parking zone as Donatello followed him up. "Yep, no mistakin' this car park."

Donatello replaced the manhole cover. "Let me get out my demon detector unit."  
"Don't bother. There's no demons in here." Raphael discounted bluntly and headed towards the lift.  
"But ..." Donatello's voice came uneasily from behind him, "How can you be so sure, Raph?"

Raphael was five metres from the lift and stopped to look at Don, "Don, you're a Ninja. What do you feel is in here with us?"  
Donatello was silent and looked around the silent gloom for a time. "I ... I don't know. Something."  
"So does it belong here?" Raphael quietly asked the follow-on question.

Donatello was silent for another long moment. He turned his head to Raphael. "Raph..."  
"Come on, Don." Raphael stated, ignoring his brother, "You came here to see a lab full of portal pictures, not a car park full of shadows." He stepped to the lift and waited for his brother to get in before pressing the buttons.

Donatello looked around the small lift, "What lives in that car park, Raph?"  
Raphael answered. "It's not the car park creepin' you out; it's perimeter security."

The door at that moment started to open, "speaking of: welcome to the security division, Donny. The name of the game is safety, security and pest management." Raphael stepped out into the neat and shiny clean reception area, the waiting chairs, the glass coffee table with the magazines, and the picture of an old castle on the wall. He stepped over to the woman sitting at the reception desk with volumes of wavy brown hair and dark almond shaped eyes, "Hey Gina, the is my brother Donatello." He introduced, "Don, this is Gina. A real mean left hook."

"Thanks."

"What's it looking like in there, Gina?"  
"You always ask me!" She complained.  
"Because this dingy little desk'll do your head in if I don't."  
She sighed, "Category A. Luhtros."

Raphael's stomach clenched. "I hate those." He turned to Don, "Alright, better show you the surveillance room and introduce you to the guys in there, Don." He led his brother up the corridor to the surveillance rooms. Raphael opened the door and stepped into the camera room. Raphael glanced to his left at the wall of tiny screens that Donatello had stopped to look at. "Don't look too long, Don, or you'll go crazy."

"They're everywhere; into everything. It's horrible."  
"It really is." Raphael agreed without really looking at the demon activity showing on the screens. "Just don't you forget the squads are out there too. It's just that no one can be everywhere at once, so things are always creeping through."  
"We've got to stop this!" Donatello stated adamantly.

"Hello." A man's voice interrupted.

Raphael looked over at a man, black security outfit, headset on his head. "Don, this is Mark. Mark's the main guy in here."

"Thanks, sir." Mark stated and took over the entire conversation from Raphael, "When you think 'desk job', Donatello, this isn't the first thing that springs to mind." Mark gestured to the wall of camera screens, "I suppose you want a tour and have more questions than answers about the demon situation, right?"

"Yeah." Donatello answered, "I've been working with the FPA on the portal problem, but-."  
"Portals." Mark repeated, "The first thing is that they open from the other side."  
"Well, yeah, we got that far, but, tracking them and-."  
"Oh, we track them alright." Mark moved past Raphael and went into the next room with the 3D holographic of the city.

"How are you getting these readings?" Donatello asked in bafflement, following him. "We've tried every spectrometric ever designed."  
Mark looked over at Don, "Portals cause fluctuations in the Earth's universal energy grid."  
"You mean the lay lines, like with the keystones?" Donatello looked back at Raphael, "That grid?"

Raphael shrugged, "I dunno, I just work here, and I got a meeting to be in. Mark, look after Don, yeah? You can get your geek together."  
"No problem, sir." Mark stated. "How do you stand him, Donatello?"  
"I have two other brothers to cushion the impact." Don joked. "See you later, Raph."

Raph smiled back at Don, "Out's the same way as back in you just-."  
"Geez, spell it out much? I'm nineteen, Raph! I know how to find the car park in the list of elevator options. Go work; I'm fine."  
Raphael put his hands up in surrender, "Alright, see me outta here."

"Donatello, let me introduce you to Martin and Joan." Mark continued as Raphael left the room.

* * *

Raphael left Donatello with the lab crew and eased back up the corridor to the meeting room. He stepped in to join the table beside Casey and April. Across the way sat Liliana and Lin, Katerina and Skims, Huan and Ricardo. While these guys might've looked like they'd come out of a UN peace talk to be in this room, they had one major thing in common: they could think in a fight.

"Is Donatello alright?" April asked.  
"Yeah, he's right. Couldn't wait to check out the lab when he heard about it."  
April smiled affectionately, "Yep, that's our Donny alright."

The division manager stepped into the room one moment before Raphael started the prep meeting. Chen was tall, lean and broad shouldered like most of the guys in the office.

"Flashpoint Alpha, evening." He stepped up to the front of the room before the large black flat TV screen, "I know you're all eager for the basic points. You're heading off a Category C on 53rd street."  
"Wait a minute." Raphael stopped him. "What happened to the Category A?"  
"The Foot have decided to take of that one."

"What!" Raphael raged, "We go off to a comfy fight while they tackle a Luhtros? Ninja or not, they're still human and that makes us responsible! It's a Luhtros; they're gonna be slaughtered."

Chen frowned at Raphael, "Martin, please pipe that camera feed on the Category A through for us."

Raphael watched the portal whirling and spitting energy like they usually did. The street was crowded with heat signatures: Ninja, Tech Ninja and two titan Ninja machines all of them geared up with scuba tanks on their backs.

Raphael looked up at Chen slightly waxed, "Geez, I forgot how they tended to crowd up a place."  
"Do you still want to break company policy, Splinterson? You have only eight field team members. Do you propose to take out both Luhtros and Ninja? They will not see your team as anything more than additional hostile targets. By targeting you they will only die quicker."

"We still gotta do something." Raphael gritted, knowing he was on the back foot on this one.  
"We can only step aside. Not confuse them, let them do as they think they can. At least then we preserve your team for another battle."

Raphael grunted in disgust and broke eye contact.

Chen was silent a second and then broke it off, "Thanks, Martin." The division manager looked around the table at Raphael's team. "Category C, incoming are four Merostius demons."

"Garbage compactors." Skims grunted in his dark voice.  
"Child's play." Katerina complained in her Russian accent.  
"Not quite." Raphael mind switched to comparing his kids to a Merostius demon, "Too big and crunchy for their little teeth." He blinked and looked around, "Alright, so we have an easy one first up tonight, guys. It's still important. These uglies will eat the whole street if we leave them to it. Four of them mean we break into teams of two. Real quick job; no need to obfuscate so I'll offside." He glanced over at Chen, "Hopefully there's something more worthwhile for us when we get back."So let's vanish."


	10. Ch2 P3 Donatello's Cure

**Chapter Two**

 **The Search for Leo**

* * *

 **Part 3**

 **Donatello's Cure**

* * *

 _Wednesday Evening_

The security division's holographic city grid looked impressive. It spanned the room, bright red and yellow spots moving and milling about, pastel circles coming and going, neon green grid lines splitting the view into eight sizeable sections. Manhattan was a busy, bustling place on pride of display.

It looked good, but then Donatello started delving into where the information came from. Back in a quiet IT room eight black dragons sat, silently coding into their computers what their senses picked up of the neighbourhoods under their watch. While that was interesting from an astral physics perspective, Donatello found it tragically useless in his search for more trans-dimensional portal knowledge. Being around living dinosaurs was biologically fascinating, but holographic technology was old news.

"Getting anywhere, Don?" Raphael roused as he stepped into the grid room.  
Choosing the most polite thoughts from his head, Donatello answered his red masked brother. "It's certainly a different system you guys have, Raph-." He watched his brother folded his arms across his chest.  
"If you wanna put down your techno-geek for a bit, Don," Raphael 'suggested' in a firm tone, "I can offer your ninja side a real good deal right now. Wanna join us on this next one when it pops up? You'll get to see a large portal right up close with your own eyes."

It was the most wonderful thing Donatello had heard in a long time. Raphael didn't expect him to come up with an answer yesterday. He didn't even expect any answer right now, just his company. The chance for scientific exploration just sweetened the deal.  
"Sure," Donatello answered happily, "I'd love to help you, Raph."  
Raphael gestured him to follow.

"We do every Category A and B portal the same way," Raphael explained as he led Donatello out of the technician's area and into a meeting room designed for ten to fifteen people. Seated at the table were Casey, April, and six other dragons in human shape. "Anything not normal and we got a chance at dying," Raphael emphasised, "We stick to the rules and we stay alive." The tone of Raphael's voice was grim and hard worn.  
"Sure, Raph. So what's the plan?"

Donatello watched his brother cross his arms, casting his eyes around the room, "What we got to our advantage is pack status." Raphael seemed to be casually reminding the regulars in his team as well. "We also got a three dimensional scope to launch our attack from. We square him off and take him down; nothing fancy. If he ain't in the open we lure him out, square him off and then take him down; four on the ground four from above. It only takes eight in the right places, so stay in your place." Raphael stated, looking at them. "Anyone wanna Q&A today? Donny?"  
The room was silent. Donatello looked around. The plan Raphael told was simple, basic and blunt. It was probably the same way in his head. So simple he'd said 'square' when what he was describing was actually a 'cube', and two squares did not nine people need. Adding himself into the equation and Donatello had a headache, "Four from above?"  
"You'll see it, Donny," April stated with a smile. "Raph's right; we use the same pattern of attack for a similar target to get similar outcome."  
"Alright!" Casey enthused, "Let's do it!"  
"Wait," a man looking Chinese at the door stopped them, "Splinterson, this one's on the Asphalt Green."

"Okay thanks, Chen, I was busy on basics," Raphael straightened, "Square him off, guys; four on the ground, four from above." Raphael looked around, "Nice wide open space, guys. Who wants obfuscation duty?"  
"Oh, I do!" April enthused, "I hope Bishop turns up; he's a challenge."  
"So Don and me take the fourth corner and you watch our backs. Let's go." Raphael stated.

* * *

In a blur, Donatello found himself standing on the playing field. He had no idea how he got here but then Raphael stepped up beside him and he realised that was kind of irrelevant right now. "Gonna come out roadside centre, Don, keep your eyes peeled."  
Donatello turned to look at the field extending into the distance. "How can you tell, Raph?"  
"I can just sense it. You know, the air vibrates, Don. You just know there's a Ninja behind you. Or a big lumberin' ugly. Or a used car salesman or a mangy cat stuck in a dumpster. Maybe you ain't got a bead on it yet, but you focus hard enough you'll know something's on the lurk."

"Skims, Katerina you take the south side." Raphael addressed his team, "We got a lot of space here guys, let's be sure we keep it even between us as much as we can. Liliana, go long and keep clear of that fence, will you?"  
"Geez, RS, that only happened once," the thin girl with the blue coloured hair grumbled.  
"Yeah," Raphael stated, "And it just happened to be the last time I stuck you next to this fence so here's your chance to break the record. Huan, Ricardo, Lin, Casey, don't bunch up. Any of us start bunching up and we back off and straighten up for another turn, alright? Keep getting back to our squares and rule that luck clean out." Raphael stepped on to a point and then stopped, equidistant to the others and drew out the broadsword.

Donatello got his two katana into his hands and watched the potent air in the middle of the square. After seeing the Foot get demolished by that beast earlier, Donatello couldn't blame Raphael for being obsessed with his squares. This was a dangerous job if not handled professionally.

He glanced around but couldn't see any flight machines. "Raph, when you said above-."  
"Focus, Donny: Category A," Raphael reprimanded him. "This one ain't an acid spitter but it's got a couple dozen tentacles to make up for it."  
"Oh, right, sorry." Donatello turned back to facing the empty space between them all. He was about to see what all the fuss was about close and personal.


	11. Ch2 P4 Donatello Does Flashpoint

**Chapter Two**

 **The Search for Leo**

* * *

 **Part 4**

 **Donatello Does Flashpoint**

* * *

The portal fizzed into existence. It was colourless at first but slowly gained a familiar blue hue, which gradually brightened to a huge, white-blue disk of energy, circling like a glowing silver wheel rim in the air above them.

"I was expecting it to be touching the ground," Donatello stated.  
"Heh, it will be in a second," Raphael commented in a dark humour; "I love it when they fall."

With a giant blast of trans-dimensional power, the portal erupted and the titanic cephalopod fell to earth with a loud thump. Donatello nearly lost his footing but caught himself in time by skipping over the earth shake. Huge and pink, the demonic monstrosity used five of its tentacles to right itself. With another three tentacles, it took a swing as a dragon flew past its face.

Donatello jumped into a run following Raphael as he took point.

Twist and back flip, forward and dodge, duck and skip, slice and spring clear, following Raphael's direction to stay to one geographical corner of the titan was reasonably tricky. Donatello found himself recalculating every move to make sure he stayed square with the rest of the team. Their other team mates had taken on dragon form, with four circling above and three at the other corners of Raphael's strategic square. Two tentacles attempted to get at Donatello and he sliced them off before bouncing back.

Finally getting an opening for the beast's face, Raphael managed to level a heavy blow with the white broadsword in his hands. The seven dragons pounced and Raphael back flipped, landing beside Donatello. "We got it, Don." He said unnecessarily, putting the pure white sword back into its scabbard on his shell.

Donatello's stomach squirmed, watching as the dragons tore the demon titan clear apart. "They're eating it."  
"Well, yeah, Don, you're the brains; what else do you reckon dragons eat?" Raphael said seriously to him. "Geez, don't do a Mikey on me."  
"It's more the point that it's raw, Raphael!" Donatello argued defensively, "All our studies show that there's an extremely dangerous comp-" like Raph was going to understand that "-I mean, a demon contaminant is involved." Glancing away, Donatello noticed a familiar van parked across the street. The FPA had arrived. That probably meant Commodore Bishop and possibly Doctor Stockman.

"Uh, Don," Raphael refuted in a steady voice, "you know black dragons spit fire, right?"  
"Oh." Donatello blinked, looking back at Raphael. He rubbed the side of his head as a dull aching started up. "Yeah, sorry, Raph; 'slipped my mind."  
"Geez, Don," Raphael said in concern. "Maybe you wanna let the doctors take a look at you?"  
"I'm fine, Raph, honest, I just need a cup of coffee."  
The expression on Raphael's face was always grim but now he stared at Donatello very intently. Slowly he answered in his dark voice. "You don't need coffee, Don."

"Pfft, now you sound like Master Splinter," Donatello shook his head, "Come on, Raph; let's go say 'hi' to Doctor Stockman. You remember him, right?"  
Raphael pulled back, "You mean that obnoxious self-centred pompous egomaniac?" He growled, "Alpha team, on my tail."  
"Yeah, him," Donatello glanced back at the fight scene. The seven dragons and their meal were gone. He tried again. "Come on, Raph, you wanna go talk to Mister Friendly?"  
"Mister who?" Raphael grumbled.  
"Sorry, it's just what Mikey calls Bishop."

"Nah, I'm not done with my team tonight. We' gotta hold a serious meeting with our CEO. I take it you wanna go back with these guys, Don?"  
"Yeah, I need to check back in, but maybe another night...?" He asked hopefully, almost wistfully, "That was a lot of fun."  
"Sure, Don, hey, no worries; I'll keep you out of trouble any night." Raphael clasped Donatello's shoulder for a moment, looking intently at him, "Take care of yourself, Don, you're the only Donatello we have." Back to business, Raphael stepped back, "Alpha team, let's vanish."

* * *

Donatello turned to the van and started walking to it, replaying back in his mind those moments before the portal had fully erupted. Familiar, but then all portals looked the same. Didn't they?

Bishop, with his sunglasses on and in his grey officer's uniform, was standing by the van casually waiting for him. Donatello stepped past him up into the back of the van and sat down on the bench seat, suddenly feeling moody despite the fortunate absence of Doctor Stockman. He'd felt so great, being with Raphael again. Compared to Bishop, Raphael was incredibly full of passionate emotion for one thing and he outwardly appreciated Donatello for another.

"Donatello-." Bishop sat down opposite him.  
"I'm asking the questions!" Donatello reprimanded him then he immediately relented, "sorry; headache. What's your question?"  
"I was going to remark at how successful you are at getting results."  
"It's a Ninja thing," Donatello responded hollowly.

Bishop slid the door shut and turned back to Donatello. "Did they have the data you so fatally want?"  
Donatello shook his aching head. To heck with information: right now all he wanted was a cup of coffee, "Not exactly. But they've made me think there's another answer out there."  
"They must have a more advanced method of detecting these portals than we do." Bishop declared. "So if they haven't told you then they're withholding information from you."  
Donatello looked up at Bishop in surprise, "How can you know that? And you don't even know where - or who I've been with."

"Their presence is evidenced by a large cloud of fog," Bishop stated factually, "A fog that you emerged from just now," he added, emphasising his words by folding his arms.  
"Oh, there is that," Donatello paused, "So you've been following the clouds."  
"Seeing you appear from the midst of one the connection would seem valid. The appearance of the clouds goes back two and a half years to when the portal invasion began. However then the question I put to you is, if they do have such benevolent intent, then why are there so few?"

So few.

Over the past couple of years, both Raphael and Michelangelo had assured Donatello of the answer to that question. Finding people to help was easy enough, but finding guys tough enough to take the front line was hard. At least it was hard on dimension third Earth at any rate. "The FPA doesn't have many squad teams out, either." Donatello reminded him.

"It's funny. By the way they talk they're really good friends with you. They even have the same number of field teams."  
"I don't like those implications you're drawing," Bishop said darkly.  
With his headache, Donatello was confused, "Okay, no, I just meant the arrangement you have with them; you know, the one where basically they take care of the bigger portals that are happening, and the FPA takes care of what comes out of the smaller ones."  
"The bigger portals," Bishop fell quiet, "how very benevolent of them."  
"Well, it's their city too. We're all doing what we can."

Bishop was silent for a moment and took a moment to push his sunglasses back up the bridge of his nose. "Hmm, so in the broadest sense you're saying that they're attacking this problem from the same angle as our patrol squadron division."  
"Yes."  
Bishop's lips twitched in a frown, "Then that is nothing like the information you were hoping to obtain."  
"No, it isn't." Donatello sighed in agreement, "But I did get to see one up close at least."  
"So by your omission, I must take it," Bishop folded his arms again, "that they're using their advanced psychic powers to detect the portals as well as to mask their presence."

Donatello closed his eyes, concentrating hard to banish the thought of bitter tasting coffee from his mind. "Psychic technology is practically an oxymoron," he stated, "It's an intrinsic, fractal biological connection to the planet that's millennia old. I'm talking pre-human history. You can't just flick a switch and turn that kind of thing on," he sighed, "What they're doing isn't efficient, it's just not efficient. It was only when Raph brought me out here that I ... I don't know, it suddenly felt like it was possible again." Donatello looked up at Bishop, "it was just one portal, Bishop, but suddenly I felt like I could've solved them all! But there's so many of them, Bishop. So many portals; it's hopeless."

Bishop shook his head slightly, "I'm not interested in what isn't possible, Doctor Splinterson. May I remind you of your hypothesis," Bishop remarked crisply. "If we can formularise the portal phenomenon we can create a design to stop the formation process. Once that design exists we can replicate it, or build it on a scale of sufficient magnitude."  
"Oh." Donatello felt a little embarrassed, "Yeah."  
"And, for what I see of the next substantial step in your research," Bishop pointed at Donatello, "It would be to see if you can code this psychic instinct that your brother's friends possess into a computer, or even a mechanical brain. I will order in the parts you'll most likely need for the endeavour. Doctor Stockman can look into creating a suitable deployment method."

"Bishop, this thing we're talking about would need to be able to generate and or store psychic energy!" Donatello frowned. "New York is an entrenched war zone. Where's it all going to come from?"  
"Perhaps when my head scientist feels a little less under siege I might tend a more philosophical debate with him, Donatello." Bishop responded smartly.  
"That's what Raph said ... in not so many words," Donatello straightened. "What is this? A conspiracy?"

"Go home, Donatello. Leave conspiracy theories to the experts."  
Told off by so many people, Donatello could do nothing more than stand up and slide the van door back aside. "Thanks, Bishop."  
"The benefit is mutual," Bishop nodded back.

Donatello headed on down to the sewer level and home. The miniature flying Geeblas were on his direct route again and he dodged out of their flight path. He unlocked the outer door of the lair and coded 'Splinterson' into the electronic lock on the internal door. Soon in the kitchen, the kettle was singing and Donatello was making his much-longed-for coffee.

Sipping his drink in relief, Donatello made it back to his workstation and booted up his computer. "The city's Ley Lines are psychic power conduits. Tapping them should hold the key." That was as far as his coffee would take him, however. Donatello sat there in front of his desktop background, unable to think of anything useful.

Little Tora's voice was piping up from his hip and Donatello looked down to see a miniature version of Raphael, "Uncle Donny, when's dad coming home?"  
"Uh ..." Donatello blinked, trying his best to remember, "He had to go to a meeting."

"Patience, Tora," Master Splinter advanced on them from the direction of the Dojo wearing his favoured maroon kimono. "Your father is very busy tonight. But I feel he will be returning shortly," he gently put his furry, claw-tipped hand on Tora's shoulder. "Come, we will continue our Taijutsu practice with your brother and sister."

The wizened rat glanced at Donatello, "You should rest, my son."  
Donatello groaned, "really you too, sensei?"  
"Your face is very drawn and haggard. I am worried about you. Bed," Splinter shot him a warning glare, "now."  
"Yes, Master Splinter," Donatello took a finishing swallow of his coffee, went to have a shower and climbed into his hammock.

Donatello lay awake for hours, unable to connect to the answer to the demon portals.


	12. Ch2 P5 Straight to the Top

_A/N: British-English spelling because apparently, I'm British. Union Jacks for Everyone! Happy Australia Day!_

* * *

Chapter Two

 **The Search for Leo**

* * *

Part 5

 **Straight to the Top**

* * *

Raphael took the lift and stepped up onto the management level of the Hamil Corp building. He hadn't really talked with the Chief Executive Officer Heath Lakes, because, frankly, he didn't have to. Not since Lakes had signed his, Casey and April's employment contracts.

The thing about this guy was that Raphael seriously couldn't remember who he was dealing with. He remembered the part about the contracts and put the rest of the encounter down to a nice piece of obfuscation. Raphael stepped out of the lift, headed past the receptionist and up the hall. "Alpha team by my side." He stated quietly to the network of shadows darkening up the hallway as he went along.

Raphael stepped into the meeting room, leaving the door open behind him because yellow. And light. For a moment Raphael stood there, having to let his eyes adjust to the brightness. There might have been a night time city outside the wall to wall windows, but all Raphael could see was his own green reflection in his bright, yellow surrounds.  
The tall pasty figure of the businessman was waiting for him on the other side of the large rectangular table.

"You know what happens when you frighten humans, Mister Splinterson." Lakes started their conversation in a lecturing tone.  
Raphael frowned. "You bring that up coz' I can't blend in like you do. A bit weak, Lakes."  
"You know what happens," Lakes stressed, "And if Flashpoint show themselves before the Foot, and heaven forbid if you actually engage them, that's how they'll react. And they will also react that way to the rest of our organisation."

Raphael paused, understanding, "Scared, are you? Nerves on edge, heart beating fast about them coming up here?"  
"I'm only a yellow dragon!" Lakes objected, looking hurt. "There is no black to me, I can't play on your level; it's not in my nature."  
"Lightweight." Raphael scoffed with a trace of pity; 'kid' was the next word Raphael thought of to describe him. "But you gotta have a bit of courage. You play human games all day long up here."  
"I'm comfortable in what I know."  
"Great, let's stick to facts, hey, I can appreciate that." Raphael stated in parenting mode, "So, question one: who taught the original Shinobi?"  
"Black dragons."  
"So, I'm pretty stuck in this turtle shape, but if I weren't, would I be a black dragon?"  
"Yes, it's the colour of your mental state."  
"So here's a new question: how many aspiring black dragons are there in the rabbit warren we call Foot Central?"

Lakes took a long moment, his frown deepening in thought; "You ... wish me to think that you are all one clan."  
"Look, we're all New Yorkers and we're all fighting on the same side." Raphael clarified, "We gotta work as a team and that rule of yours is making sure we-can't-do-that!" He ended, gritting his teeth.  
"They're still human!" Lakes argued back.  
Raphael folded his arms, "So that just means we gotta make doubly sure they don't get into trouble."  
Lakes paused.

Raphael's patience was slipping. "They're dying out there, Lakes; what do I gotta say to you to make you get that? They think they gotta do our job because they don't know we exist and they ain't cut out for it and then they die. You're not helping us help them. Worse still, they think they're alone." The thought made Raphael feel sick, "That's a real bad feeling, Lakes, and I'm talking from experience here. It ain't kind." Raphael struggled to ignore the nauseous feeling, "It ain't kind and it ain't even necessary here."

Lakes stepped up closer to the table. "So how do we reassure them that they're not alone without frightening them with the fact that they're not alone?"  
"Oh, that's really easy." Raphael grunted, "You go in and talk them down." He emphasised meaningfully to Lakes, "You're the guy we put in charge coz you're clever with human games, right?"  
"I? Go into a den of black dragons?"  
"Hey, they're only human, right?" Raphael teased darkly. "Like falling off a log. The Foot's into business dealings too, so you can get on with them that way. You right with your own shadow? Want extra backup?"  
"I have my shadow security." Lakes paused in thought. "I am good with business, I can approach Mistress Karai in that way."  
"Great." Raphael smiled at him; relieved the guy was starting to own the idea. "Just back her down to the Category C's. Ninjas are good with those and the FPA will stick with clearing out the riff raff."

"Very well, but while I am there, you must get your team ready."  
"What for?" Raphael asked in surprise confusion.  
"In business, humans play this game where when we ask for something, or the absence of something, we offer something else in return. Your job now is to find that something else to make Mistress Karai happy enough to do what you want."

"Yeah, a Christmas present, eh? The Foot will be wanting something that looks strategically important..." Raphael frowned in thought, remembering the Foot building's layout. "They'll want our tech. The Foot loves new tech; all the extra things that we haven't thought of doing with it; they'll be over it like a flock of Geeblas."  
Lakes smiled, "Then they'll think it's a very valuable exchange and they'll honour the agreement. Give them something that you black dragons like. Give them that ..." Lakes paused. "Give them our light refraction technology."  
"I think humans already got something like it out on the entertainment market," Raphael shrugged.  
"But they're not using it help track demon portals."  
"Woah!" Raphael almost took a backstep and caught himself; "That tracking stuff's got as much in common with the hologrid as a delivery boy does with a pizza!"  
Lakes smiled, "But I'm sure your team can make it look like a pizza."  
Raphael folded his arms, "Lakes, what kind of dragon likes getting spoonfed?"  
"Water dragons, somewhat. They are patient as they are gentle."  
"Ah, you're not getting it, Lakes." Raphael rubbed his head, tired of the bright lights and the pseudo-adult conversation. "Whatever. You go give them a yellow dragon headache and I'll go figure out how to sell it like it ain't easy."

"They don't like simple things? You do, Splinterson."  
"Overthink and die." Raphael looked fiercely defiant at Lakes. "You can say whatever you like. Simple's just a way of getting it into people's skulls, Lakes."  
"And simple is what we also give the Foot." Lakes decided. "Hiding is complicated, clarity is simple. They will no longer need to overthink and then they will not die. A good solution. I will meet with them tomorrow. Organise your tech team for the delivery and installation. If all is well, I should say they will be ready for you about this time tomorrow evening."  
"Right." Raphael stepped outside the yellow room in relief. He was alone again with just his own shadows for company.

"Well, that was worth the headache, guys." Raphael turned and headed to the lift. He needed to talk to Mark downstairs before he went home.


	13. Ch2 P6 Tied with a Red Bow

**Chapter Two**

 **The Search for Leo**

* * *

 **Part 6**

 **Tied with a Red Bow**

* * *

Raphael headed to the security level's surveillance rooms looking for Mark. "Mark; got a new job for you."

Raphael pointed over at the holographic grid that he'd looked at every night since the tech team had first built it well over two years ago. "We' got 'til tomorrow night to find a way to wrap that thing up with a nice red bow, because we want to be giving Karai and the Foot that. Tell me you can make it happen."  
"I-." Mark choked, standing up, "What?"  
Raphael folded his arms. "We don't want them getting hurt anymore, right, Mark?"  
"R-right."  
"So how're they gonna do that when they're blindfolded?"  
"They're going to make a complete mess of Flashpoint! Underhanded, inquisitive, we give them some information, they only ever want more!" Mark exclaimed, "A red bow? Make it the freaking universe!"

Raphael stared at Mark for a silent moment. "You done there?"  
Mark sighed, "Yes, sir, I'm right on it." He looked over to the hologrid, "Think ..." He looked over, "Martin, you know the way we do that initial coding. Could we find a way to translate it?"  
"No, it's easy to transmit it, though. If we just gave them a replica of our hologrid tech."

Raphael blinked at the blazing multi-coloured light show in the middle of the room; "So how do we make this pretty picture make sense to the average New York Ninja?"  
"We could split the channel." April suggested, coming up behind Raphael, "Let some of the data load up on a computer screen as well."  
"Since you sound like you know what you're talking about, April, you want to have a crack at the old tech job?"  
"Sure." April shrugged, "Saying 'hi' to Karai is majorly at the top of my To Do list."  
"Heh, well, you'll get your chance." Raphael smiled at her. He turned to Casey, "Hey, let's go home the long way 'round," he suggested, "We ain't usually out this late. It's a long shot, but maybe Leo will show up."

* * *

One ninja-free neighbourhood followed the next, moonlit alleyways overflowed with black garbage bags; tell-tale signs that garbage day was tomorrow. Next alley again.

"Um," Casey's voice called from behind, "sorry Raph, I forgot what we were looking for again."

Taking a couple steps back from the edge of the rooftop, Raphael glanced at Casey standing under the light of the moon. "Geez, Casey. We're looking for Leo, remember? Short green turtle with a blue Ninja mask?"

Casey yawned, "Oh, right. Yeah. Leo. You know I think we might be going about this all wrong, buddy."  
Raphael ran at the ledge and jumped the gap across to the next building before he properly considered Casey's words. "Ah." He sighed in realisation, "You're asleep on your feet, Case'."

Raphael got to the far ledge and looked down into the alleyway at the rustling, slobbering dumpster. "Meh, just a Korblytt. I ain't looking for kiddie meals right now."  
"What else do you expect looking down into alleyways, Raph?"  
Raphael straightened up and turned to Casey. "Trouble, Casey. Trouble draws Ninja."  
"No, Raph, trouble draws you," Casey corrected. "You're still thinking like you, you gotta think like Leo."  
Raphael felt his head getting hot with frustration. "Will people quit telling me to be like Leo? I ain't Leo, can't take his place, can't think up answers like him!"  
Casey held out his hands in surrender, "Don't take it like that, Raph; I just meant you gotta look in places he'd be, not in places you'd be."

Taking a moment to think of an answer to that, Raphael folded his arms. "So while I'd be in the alleyway cracking some skulls, he'd be the one going after their boss that sent them."  
"Yeah, so we just have to find the boss guy."  
Raphael paused, thought about that and then rolled his eyes, "Great idea, Casey, boss guy of what?"  
"Oh." Casey scratched his head, "Well, what'd'you expect, Raph? Alpha shift's over and I'm full."  
"Alright, so time out. Let's regroup." Raphael sighed in defeat and sat down on the ledge.

"We ain't really talked much lately, Casey, have we?"  
Casey sat down beside him, "Nah, what's to say that ain't obvious or ain't been said already?"  
Raphael nodded, looking up at the moon; the one place Leo probably wouldn't be. "Gone after a boss guy and it takes two years?"  
"Maybe he lost his way." Casey grunted in weary frustration; "Man! Wish I had a lock on him. But Leo ain't come around since the accident; I wouldn't know what he smells like or nothing; I got no clue."  
"Funny, coz' the way I figure it: there's only four big walking talking Ninja trained turtles in New York. All you gotta do is pick the one you ain't locked onto yet."  
"But I don't got New York in my head, Raph! That's the thing. I only got the people I care about. If I had all that lot in my head I'd be a total nutcase," Casey yawned.

Raphael paused, thinking that over. "I guess that's why the techs do us up that nice big hologrid, so us hotheads can find things we wanna take apart."  
"Sure," Casey agreed plainly.  
The grid, their very colourful grid. "There's a whole lot of everything on the grid, though..."  
"What, you thinking something?"  
"Leo'd be on the grid too, Casey."  
"Right, but the stats techs don't unplug themselves for no one."  
Raphael frowned, remembering the three-dimensional light show of a map; the multitude of glowing red heat signatures, the white circles of appearing and disappearing portals. "And that thing'd drive anybody crazy if they look too long..."

Raphael felt his heart ache. He closed his eyes and took a breath; the idea of combing that grid for one lone turtle made him feel overwhelmed. "Hey, it's just another focus exercise, right? I do 'em twenty times a day." He paused, his stomach reminding him how late into the night it was. "The kids' afternoon snack won't do 'em the full night. Better book."

Turning back for the quiet alleyway and the manhole beckoning him to go below, Raphael sighed. "I'll have to ask Splinter if he can babysit another night. 'Least I know where to start now."


	14. Ch2 P7 Today's News

**Chapter Two**

 **The Search for Leo**

* * *

 **Part 7  
**

 **Yesterday's Battle is Today's News**

* * *

 _My name is Leonardo, and there are demons living in Manhattan. The most disturbing thing about them is me, feeling like they're normal._

Leonardo awoke and slowly dragged his eyes open. The vague shape of the numbers on the clock perched on the bedside table came clearer.

Easing himself slowly out of bed, Leonardo appreciated how much the muscles in his body ached from last night's battle. He went to the wall length mirror opposite the bed and looked at his bandaged shoulder. It had mostly healed up thanks to the luck of having scales instead of skin and the learning of the correct herbal treatments. He turned slightly more to try to get a look at what kind of damage the acid had done to his shell. He couldn't see it.

He passed the rice paper door and headed through the open plan living area towards the breakfast bar. Karai was already busy in the kitchen. She was dressed in her usual black and grey and smelled floral clean from the shower.  
"Good morning, Karai," Leonardo greeted her as he sat down on the nearest stool.  
"Good morning, Leonardo-san," Karai responded, sounding almost awake, "How are you?"  
"I'm alright. I can't tell how bad my shell is though. That acid ate straight through the cockpit."  
Karai gazed at him, "Your shell has protected you well."

"How are you doing?" Leonardo focused his attention on his battle companion as she resumed stirring the porridge on the stove. "You were in medical too."  
"I ache ... possibly from the time when you pushed me aside," she stated. Leonardo saw a smile fluttering on her lips as she remembered, "It was a good battle."

"We've got a lot of information on the portal." Leonardo summed up, "And the demon."  
"The demon is dead now, Leonardo!" Karai snapped curtly.  
Leonardo watched as she ducked beneath the bench for the bowls. "Demons have a habit of returning, Karai," he reminded her.  
She straightened to look at him, one hand on the cupboard door handle and the other with the two bowls. "We have seen many demons together, Leonardo. We have defeated them all together and for now, we are at peace."  
Leonardo held onto his next words, quietly wishing he felt peace like she did.

"I'm looking forward to heading down to the lab," he changed the subject instead. "That was possibly the biggest portal that's ever opened in Manhattan and the techs must have gotten a real good scan of that thing before the demon turned up." Leonardo glanced at the bandages on his shoulder, again wondering how bad his shell had been damaged. "And started spitting acid everywhere." As much as he hoped never to see another huge acid spitting hellspawn in New York or anywhere, Leonardo was afraid that hope wasn't exactly a deciding factor.

Karai sat down on the high stool beside him and they enjoyed a quiet breakfast together.

It wasn't something that he liked to admit, but Leonardo felt emotionally spent. The memories of last night's battle haunted him; of that acid spitting everywhere, the shrieking cries, the screams of the soldiers it had hit. Did the gear work? Not really. The fact that they'd defeated the demon at all was just sheer stubborn persistence on the Foot's part. Although the alternative was running away and there was not a single ninja in this building that would do that.

Leonardo took his empty bowl into the kitchen and put the kettle on, getting out the herbal tea while the water came to a bubble.  
"Leonardo-san," Karai observed, handing him her bowl from across the bench, "There are worries creasing your brow."

He looked solemnly at her as he took her bowl. "I just hope that data we collected pays off." He washed the last breakfast dish in the sink and then turned back to her. "We need to be able to go through these battles without having so many deaths."  
Karai's expression softened, "I agree, Leonardo." Her face dipped, her eyes lost their traction on his and then she looked away entirely.

The kettle came to a boil and Leonardo diverted his attention to making the tea for them. In the background, he heard Karai go and turn on the television to the morning news.

 _"...although nobody can confirm additional sightings, residents in the area are advised to remain on guard. Manhattan's minister of defense, Commodore John Bishop, has declared that adherence to the sunset curfew regime is strongly advised for personal safety."_  
 _"Our forces and manpower are heavily engaged in removing these threats from the streets."_

Bishop's voice echoed around the spartan open plan living room. Listening, Leonardo put the tea things onto the tray and brought them out to the little rectangular Japanese table on the fluffy black and white rug.

 _"Help us to help you. All citizens are urged to take sensible precautions and make staying out of the way of danger the matter of top priority. At the first sign of trouble, all citizens are to evacuate from the immediate area and notify the authorities as soon as possible. If you are witness to any military engagements with hostiles, please always get to a safe minimal two hundred_ metre _distance and if you-."_

"You think two hundred metres would've cut it last night?" Leonardo prompted Karai as he sat down.

"Narrowly," Karai answered, pouring the tea into the two cups. "But not for long had we failed."  
Leonardo thought over that one. They had succeeded. He took the cup she offered to him. "Thanks."

 _"... 'it's business as usual' at Hamil Corp with the launch of their latest humorous advertising campaign targeted at aspiring inventors entitled: 'Rethink tomorrow today'. CEO Heath Lakes declined to comment directly on the success of the campaign so far, only saying how 'the more people inspired' by the ads 'to rearrange their sock drawers, the better'."_  
 _"We want to get them to think: 'How can I do this better?' Everybody, everywhere: Think!"_

"You make a good point," Leonardo told her.  
"It is nice to see the worry clear from your brow, Leonardo-san," Karai smiled.  
"We still need a safer solution, though."  
"And you are also right." Karai picked up the remote and turned off the television. "Let us see what we have discovered."

* * *

Leonardo and Karai went down to the lab area. The Foot's technology research setup spanned two entire floors.

He glanced over to his right as he walked and saw the giant mouser had caught something new in the night. It was a tale less awesome than the titanic beast, but Leonardo knew nothing of this one yet. "One moment, Karai."  
On one side of the giant mouser was a step ladder; three techs were busy up and down, cleaning the robot. The mechanically digested remains were on the examination table behind it.

Leonardo looked at the techs, "I've never seen one of those before." He looked at the furry grey twisted remains.  
"It's got morph properties from what we can tell."  
"But that would suggest intelligence."  
"Not necessarily."  
"You mean 'not necessarily the case'." Leonardo frowned. "It's not like they don't exist, guys. Where's the mouser's memory tapes?" He went to the mouser, "How these monsters act is one step closer to knowing how we need to act."  
The tech stepped back up the ladder and undid the back of the mouser's head. He pulled out its memory card and handed it down to Leonardo.  
"Very curious." Karai said, "We did not program the mouser with covert attack strategies." She followed Leonardo to the central card reader in the room, "But if it has this intellect how then could it be so easily caught by our mouser?"

Leonardo fast forwarded through the vacant logs until a flash of green jumped out at him. He replayed that section. "Raph!" He said in shock, watching Raphael and someone in a black unmarked suit of armour jump up and clear of the mouser and the demon's meeting paths.  
"So that is how. It could not have seen the mouser coming in time to comprehend and to react," Karai understood happily.  
"I..."

Leonardo was confused, "Raphael ..." had he ... almost forgotten he even had brothers?

"He's seen the mouser."  
"Yes, we are doubly lucky to have gotten it back in one piece, it seems." Clearly, Karai hadn't forgotten.  
"I'd better explain to Master Splinter that it's only programmed for demons."  
"Yes ..." Karai's response was delayed, "Leonardo-san, go visit them."  
Leonardo considered the morning and the light. "I'll have to wait until it's night." He stated, "Let's look at the portal data."  
Reluctantly, Karai bobbed her head in agreement and turned away. "I have some business duties I must attend. You go on, Leonardo-san." Karai left.

* * *

The largest extra-dimensional horror he'd seen since the original Shredder.

Leonardo spent his time going through portal sightings and reports, trying to be sure if this titan was just an anomaly. Two years and then this. It was a terrible sign. If the demons were getting larger, that meant that all of the Foot's efforts to restore the fabric of reality had come to nothing. The walls of the universe were doomed to give way. Leonardo only hoped that the portal data could spell a new solution; and one that would work this time.

All the while as Leonardo searched and pondered and fretted at the small computer terminal, the big screen to his left showed the spinning circle, coming into life and then disappearing as the data feed looped around again. The tech teams were working on the Utrom data readings, but Leonardo knew that it would still be several days before any answers could be reached about how or what made the portal occur.

The nearby door to the left of Leonardo opened. It was Doctor Chaplin coming out from the autopsy room. The man had been in there for hours and looked quite tired. He saw Leonardo and stepped over to him. He stretched himself and then slouched against the wall beside Leonardo's console.  
"We'll go over those microscopics with the Dimension X resonance tracer," Chaplin stated as much to himself as to Leonardo, "but judging by that guy's guts he's bound to be on the same genealogical chart as all the others we've studied."  
"Same dimension," Leonardo interpreted, "One planetary dimension, breeding these ... monsters."  
"Hey." Chaplin straightened looking at the big screen with the portal data, "We've got an ambient particle emission on the T plus one slot interval. Duran; check that disbursement field's makeup."  
"That's subspace flotsam from the wormhole, Doctor Chaplin sir," Duran replied.  
"Rats." Then to Leonardo, "I thought we might've finally had something about the entry point," Chaplin explained in an apologetic tone.

"Talking about entry points," Leonardo was in no way believing the job was done yet, "That acid spitting, metal bending Zeus-sized temper tantrum didn't have any particles left over from its starting place? No leaves in its fur, no splinters from ripping apart alien trees as it passed, no dirt it compacted under its feet as it walked? What kind of a place is that? A car wash?" Leonardo frowned at Chaplin, "Check again, Chaplin, because when I think 'car wash' I think soap. There is always a trace."  
"Good point," Chaplin mused. "I'll get Harkman to double check those toenails. A beast that unintelligent couldn't be that into personal hygiene. And if it was a pet ..." He looked at Leonardo, "If there is an owner that wasn't already hell-bent on destroying our dimension, he'd sure be upset now."  
"Good point," Leonardo repeated grimly back to Chaplin, "I'd better see what Karai's up to." Leonardo resolved to make sure she was alright.

"This is a really interesting line of inquiry." Leonardo said in a positive tone to Chaplin, "Keep looking."  
Chaplin nodded in agreement, seeming less tired now. "We'll check every hair follicle and skin flap, Master Leonardo."  
"We fought it outside in the street." Leonardo thought in answer, "But is there a way you can find out if it'd been breathing recycled air?" He pointed up at the air vent above their heads. "Dust particles, chemical poly-carbons, ozone? I know I'm just throwing out words now, but-."  
"Yeah! Evidence of technology through substantiating the inhalation of industrial cleaners and other not dissimilar by-products." Chaplin smiled, "Great idea!" He turned away for the door, "I'll turn over that autopsy again."


	15. Ch2 P8 Marketing

**Chapter Two**

 **The Search for Leo**

* * *

 **Part 8**

 **Marketing**

* * *

Leonardo decided he needn't hang around for another round of demon dicing and headed upstairs to the business section to gather Karai up for lunch instead. He got into the security room and stood behind the Ninja officer on guard there. Karai was visible on one of the screens, briefing one of the junior business personnel.  
"What's up?"  
"Oh, the Mistress is mystery shopping again." The Ninja said disinterestedly. "Bread on the plate stuff."

Leonardo was a little curious, watching the peppy brown haired youth practically bounce out of the meeting room with the enthusiasm of someone suddenly gifted the greatest job in the world. He stepped out of the security room and walked in on Karai still sitting at her table.  
"Mystery shopping again?"  
"Oh, Leonardo-san, yes." She smiled at him, "Remember the news this morning? They go on about the demon problem and then suddenly they switch to something you and I both find trivial."

"Hamil Corporation," she put her elbows on the table and steepled her fingers together in thought. "I want to know how someone could be so loud in such a time as this, so bold as to ..." Karai blinked and looked at him, "Distraction. It is an excellent ninja tactic."  
Leonardo stared at her, "You don't think it's to do with Hamil Corp getting more business through their door?"  
"Of course, it may be purely business, only ..." Karai searched for the correct words; "The target audience, Leonardo-san, it is diffused. The first that I do not understand," Karai retold; "The teacher uses toilet paper to teach the children mathematics. The second is the mother walking the pram; she mixes up plaster to smooth out the large cracks in the sidewalk."  
"Maybe not the best way to solve that problem."  
"The last mystery to me is the baker's story. He folds his socks together so he does not fumble in the dawn for matching ones. The others have some sales value to Hamil Corp, but why these?" Karai sat back, "We are talking of a global enterprise. They do not succeed by wasting money on excessive spending. But these three as I have just retold to you barely mention their brand."

"Sounds like they want to cheer people up. It's kind of a Mikey thing to do, actually. Lighten the mood, point out the world isn't completely ending." Now Leonardo was missing Michelangelo.  
"But it does not directly bring business in; because these focus on inventing new uses for everyday objects rather than inventing new objects that then will bring new money. The purpose is diffused, the motive is diffused, the target audience is too broad." Karai pointed out factually.

"So I have sent Brown in with a 'new invention'. He is to see what he can see of their operations and get some understanding of the true purpose for these distractions. It may be just as you say; but ... I do not trust a man who smiles too much."  
"Who, Heath Lakes?" Leonardo raised an eyebrow as Karai nodded. "I suppose you'd get more out of industrial espionage than an executive dinner party."  
"Those are only for keeping power distribution steady." She stated. "The substance one gains from the party is measured by the number of business cards you have done away with."  
"I'm sure it's not just that."  
"No, but it is not much more." Karai shrugged, "Hamil Corp received free publicity out of these 'new with old' advertisements but Lakes still has my marketing team very puzzled. Hamil Corp cannot make money with 'new with old'. They gather their strength through technology innovation."  
"All these ads do, Karai, new, old or whatever, all of them do get people thinking. I'm sure that's what I heard that guy say this morning," he paused.

"That's all we had sometimes when I was growing up with my brothers. You know what it's like, Karai, on the edge of surviving; it's always 'think, act on it or die'."  
Karai stood up, "I knew it must be something to do with the demon crisis!" She exclaimed, suddenly emphatic, "That is the answer!"  
"I don't know, Karai." Leonardo wasn't convinced, "Anybody could've thought of that. It's kind of the state New York is in right now."  
"We shall soon see; from what Brown finds out," Karai settled the conversation.

"But for now, let us retire for lunch." She paused, looking at Leonardo, "To spend such large amounts of money privately for public benefit alone, Leonardo-san, there can be only two possible motives. Either Lakes feels the message keenly, or it is distraction for a political agenda. But as a significant corporate professional, he is more likely chasing the latter. I wish to know what he is attempting to distract us from."

Leonardo followed Karai out of the room. "So, I see now that I didn't help you very much with your puzzle, Karai."  
"No, but Brown will," Karai stated, "He will seek to find what the distraction is for."  
"He didn't seem very ..." Leonardo hesitated, "Ninjaesque."  
"Why, Leonardo-san?" Karai turned back to him at the lift, "This is only a business matter."

* * *

They headed upstairs and spent some quiet time over steaming bowls of Wonton and noodle soup. The afternoon sun began to stream further in through the large window as they sat on the black and white woolen mat at the low Japanese styled dining table.

It was a long peaceful time before Karai broke the silence. "I did not mean what I might have sounded like earlier, Leonardo-san."  
Now Leonardo was puzzled, "What about, Karai?"  
"It sounded as though you did not help me, to discuss the advertisements."  
"Well, I didn't really come in there expecting I'd be much help."  
"But you were helpful, Leonardo-san."  
"But you'd already made up your mind, Karai," he shrugged unconcernedly back at her, "It was a distraction. You wanted to know what for, you sent Brown off to find out, then I came in."  
"I may have already made up my mind, Leonardo-san, but it is always good to have you to talk to. It is both through clarity and confusion that I appreciate your presence," she stated.  
"I also, Karai," he answered her mutually.

Karai paused a moment, "Leonardo-san, you said this morning that you will see your father tonight to tell him of the mouser. But could you not also tell your-."  
The intercom over on the kitchen wall beeped.  
"I'll get it." Leonardo got up and pressed the button.

"Hai."  
"Mistress Karai, Brown has returned."  
Karai stood up and came over. "That was very quick." She stated, "Was he discovered? Where is he now?"  
"He's in the security office with us. He doesn't want to leave."  
"Tell him he must leave!" Karai was incredulous, "There is not enough room in there for us to discuss his findings."  
"We'll be right there, Brown." Leonardo stated reassuringly, "We'll come around and collect you." Leonardo turned off the intercom, "Karai, how much Ninja training has Brown had?"  
"Only a few weeks," she explained; "This was not a job for a Ninja." She added unimpressed, "I was very clear on all such things."  
"Yeah, I'm sure you were, Karai," Leonardo stated patiently, "But that means you haven't taught him to focus past his fears yet either."

Karai was in a sudden hurry to the door, "You say there is something at Hamil Corp that could frighten him."  
Leonardo followed her and closed the door behind him, passing the guards and hearing them fall in step behind them. "I guess I am," he stepped in beside Karai in the lift and cast her a sideways glance. "He wasn't in there very long."  
"Not long at all," Karai echoed back solemnly.

* * *

They stepped out of the lift and Karai persuaded Brown to come out of the security booth with the assurance of her two personal body guards. Unfortunately for Brown's Wednesday, he also had to face a mutant turtle as well.  
"This is Leonardo Splinterson, my associate." She introduced, "He is also Ninja and will keep your safety." She added and gestured to Brown to head up the hall with her.  
She looked over to one of the guards, "Fetch Brown some tea."  
"No, no, no tea, just ... stay." Brown said in a jumpy voice, casting a furtive glance to Leonardo.  
"I'll get the tea." Leonardo resolved and headed over to the tea room.

Leonardo finished putting cups and a tea pot on the tray and crossed the wide hall to the meeting room that Karai's voice quietly sounded from. He hesitated at the door.  
"You must focus past the thing that frightens you, Henry," Karai's voice was calm and collected, "Only then will you see it clearly."  
Brown shook his head. "I see nothing. I won't see anything, I'll never see anything!" He rubbed his face in his hands.

Leonardo circled Brown at the end of the table to the opposite side of Karai and gently set the tea tray down on the polished wood surface. He looked over at Karai and then to Brown. "This is going to take some time, Karai. He needs to settle down a little first."

Karai patiently waited for a spell and then poured a cup of tea and handed it to Brown. "Here. It will help clear your head."

* * *

"What was the last strange thing that you did see, Henry?"  
"Their elevator panel." Brown declared. "I think I must've been really stupid because I had no idea what it'd do. Stupid childish mistake. Most places they have keys, you know, to unlock levels? Why don't they just have a normal elevator?"  
"You pressed a wrong button?" Karai interpreted, "Where did it send you?"  
"I stepped out into darkness. It was alive. I was inside it." Brown stated, "Like a thick foggy heavy darkness. Alive and surrounding me. And there was ... and then I was ..." Brown frowned, "Where was I? I was nowhere. Then I was ..." Brown swore. "I'm sorry, Mistress Karai, they must've wiped my memory. But I remember how dark it was. And then I was ..." Brown rubbed his head. "It makes no sense."

"What is sense or not," Karai stated, "It matters not if that is the truth you recall."

"The truth is that I pressed the X on their elevator panel. I can't remember what else I pressed." Brown frowned, sipping his drink, "I was sure the elevator was going down. They'd brought me to level twenty, I think, so going down did make sense. But then the elevator stopped and there was just that wall of darkness. A curtain, I thought, because it was something I could pass. But I only stepped into it, not through it. And the elevator! I remember; I turned around and the elevator ... the light was completely swallowed up. I was swallowed up. I heard the doors close but the light was already gone. I was gone. The air was so thick and I was breathing in... like a fog in a midnight forest, only I wasn't outside because it felt like there were walls not too far off and it wasn't supposed to be midnight. Then the darkness lifted and I was in the lobby."  
"You discovered yourself in their lobby?"  
"No, Mistress Karai," Brown stated, spilling his drink as he put it down on the table, "I was in 'our' lobby! Downstairs, in the museum."  
"Teleportation," Karai stated plainly.  
"I'm more worried that they've messed with my memory, taken bits out. You didn't tell me anything important, Mistress, did you?" Brown pleaded.  
"No." Karai answered bluntly, "Nothing but the obvious has been spoken and they could not have wiped your memory, Brown."  
"How can you be so sure, Mistress Karai?"  
"Because if that were the case you would not remember getting your assignment either. There has not been enough time that has lapsed. You were gone ... one hour at most and short term memory is never so fleeting as that."

Brown breathed an unsteady sigh, trying to find relief in Karai's words.

Karai glanced up at the guards before looking to Brown again. "The doctors will give you a CAT scan and check you over, but if they say you are fine, then you are to take tomorrow and Friday off. I want you to spend this time working on focusing your mind past your fears, and not on your fears. In the case of darkness, you do recall sensing the walls and knowing the lift was still there. Think more of the shape of the room, not of what was within it."  
"Thank you, Mistress Karai. I will."  
Karai stood up, "You are safe, Henry, or they would not have concerned themselves to return you." She nodded to the two guards, "See him to the doctor safely," she directed.

"Leonardo-san," Karai called him to follow and Leonardo left the table and the faintly trembling Brown. "I must investigate more into what Hamil Corporation does in the business world, but you I wish..." She took his arm, "Go see your father, Leonardo-san. And if you can, your brothers, also."  
"There is still time before sunset, Karai." Leonardo disagreed, "Let's check out this building of opaque darkness."


	16. Ch2 P9 The Building of Opaque Darkness

**Chapter Two**

 **The Search for Leo**

* * *

 **Part 9**

 **The Building of Opaque Darkness**

* * *

Karai led Leonardo to the executive office floor. They stepped into one of the meeting rooms. The long table had ornate dragon legs and a line down the middle for the holographic screen terminals.

"Leonardo-san." Karai stated clearly, "I have been communicating with the Purple Dragons."  
"How far have you gotten with Hun?" He asked.  
"I have heard it in his voice." Karai sat down in one of the side seats, "Their numbers are depleted."  
Leonardo sat down opposite her on the other side of the table. "Even with all the technology they've stolen?"  
Karai sat back in her chair. "I did wonder how. What if, Leonardo-san, this was not the first large portal this city has seen?"  
Leonardo's stomach churned at the idea. "Not good, Karai."  
"No, but it is something in the way of understanding Hun's guarded attitude."  
Leonardo sat back. "So, it's just us and the FPA."

"Perhaps ..." Karai frowned at him, then looked away, shaking her head slightly. "Street view." She pressed her fingers to the meeting room's computer control panel. "Show us the Hamil Corporation building." She directed, "Show us the building of opaque darkness."  
"A rather oppressive name," Leonardo remarked, looking as the familiar business highrise complex filled the screen in front of them.

"Brown has proven to us that the advertisements are nothing. A ruse; a sample of these people's ongoing public deception, Leonardo. A very good one. To look upon Hamil Corporation with a business mind, it is little more than a holding company. A bucket, holding many little things. They have access to health care technology, hygiene technology, recycling technology, just to name a few." Karai frowned, "Brown did not get too far inside. Their security officers are Ninja and jumped him in the darkness. They saw through his deception and used the darkness to frighten him."  
"What about the teleportation jump to the Foot lobby?"  
"It is a mystical power. I only know that the Foot clan is not in possession of that skill. I cannot speak for other ninja."

"Another ninja clan here in New York?" Leonardo leaned forwards to her, "They've certainly kept to themselves. And we've had a lot of large battles in New York these last few years."  
"I also, question their benevolence. They returned Brown to us, but is that also a ruse?" Karai frowned back at him and then returned her vision to the screen. "Intel, Hamil Corporation. Year of establishment."

The data loaded on the screen.  
"Hamil Corporation, New York branch was first established in 1783." It reported.  
"That's just a branch." Leonardo stared at the swirling numbers in the image on the right-hand side of the search screen, "Where's Hamil Corporation's central location?"  
The internet lag was even greater. Eventually, the Manhattan street address came up.  
"I'll try again." Karai frowned. "Intel, location of the first branch of Hamil Corporation."  
The computer loaded for a long moment, struggling to tell them: "You must pay corporation tax on profits."  
Leonardo read the first words in bemusement, "I think we're not getting very far with this method, Karai."

Karai's fingers danced over to the control panel on the table. "Chaplin, give us access to Hamil Corporation's registry."  
"Just a second, Mistress Karai." Chaplin's voice sounded back through the intercom.

* * *

As the clock turned over past sunset the circles on the city holo-grid began appearing again. Donatello gazed at the grid. He knew this behaviour though it was startling to see it so clearly highlighted.

"Only happens during the night time; why?" He spun back around to the computers on the thought. "Mark tell me more about th-."  
"Hey, Mark," Joan interrupted, "need your help on this, the little sneaks are at it again!" Joan's fingers were flying across the keyboard.  
"What what?" Mark jumped across the room to stand over Joan's shoulder.  
"They think we have a server and they're trying to hack into it. What do I do?" Joan's voice held urgency as her fingers blocked the incoming code-cracking attempts.  
"Pretend, Joan! I know, let them 'log in' with 'employee access' privileges. That'll settle them down."  
"Phew, I can do that." Joan's hands continued to fly across the keyboard. She then sat back, "Whoa, that was splack."  
"You got 'em?"  
"Yeah, they think they're in."  
"Alright, Charlie." Joan stated, "So you want to play twenty questions then we'll play twenty questions."

Mark looked over at Donatello, "Hey, Don, you said you were looking for portal data? Well, you might just be interested in our hacker's IP address."

"Really?" Donatello sat down to the computer next to Joan, looking down the mouth end of the illicit patch through. "It's Chaplin's IP address! S-weet." He started coding a quick program.  
"Hamil Corporation stock registry? Help, Mark, what's that?" Joan begged.  
"They want to find out who's sharing the control of this place."  
"Oh, they want that kind of registry. So shares are only available for issue to new employees as part of the employee equity program."

Joan continued madly typing, as Donatello continued to code. "Now they want to know who got the last share."  
Mark gritted. "Type Mark Shore, age 37."  
"Bio?"  
"Junior Assistant Technician, Security Division, Hamil Corp. I'm sick of being the new guy on the chopping block." He added offhand.  
"How many shares? One. Coz he's only one employee, dah." Joan scoffed. "See this is why Lakes keeps going on about-Now they're wanting the largest share buy. Didn't I just tell them we all get only one? Pfft, see humans, they're all just-."

"Type, Joan, you're a hi-tech computer. Arnold Casey Jones, April Jones-O'Neil and Raphael Splinterson. Three people, three shares. Because the Foot obviously need help counting." Mark added sarcastically, folding his arms. "Let's see what they make out of that."  
"Ready, Don?" Joan asked, "Before they try on a serious question?"  
"Oh, I'm all set here." He grabbed a memory card from his mini-utility pack and slotted it into the reader.

* * *

The seconds dragged on.  
"Chaplin?"  
"I...'ve managed to hack in with employee access privileges."  
"That ought to be enough," Leonardo commented.  
"Thank you, Chaplin." Karai responded. The screen lit up a simple green coloured title bar on a white background, a searchbox, and some link icons.

"Intel, year of establishment and founder of Hamil Corporation." Karai spoke into the audio recognition software.  
The search bar caught the words and the internet lagged briefly as the answer loaded.  
"Founded by Yu the Great at the time of Shun's rule in the Xia dynasty." Leonardo nearly choked as he read it out, "That's Chinese."  
Karai added, "Some two thousand years before the first known ninja in Japan. Intel, Hamil Corporation stock registry."  
"Shares are only available for issue to new employees as part of the employee equity program." Leonardo read.

"Bring up the last exchange."  
"Mark Shore," Leonardo read, "Junior Assistant Laboratory Technician, Security Division. Wait." Leonardo puzzled, "Junior? How many stocks did he buy?"  
"Mark Short Stocks." Karai rephrased into the search bar.  
'Mark Shore Stocks: One.' The screen replied.  
"One." Karai scoffed, "I have asked the wrong question. Intel," she addressed the computer, "largest recent stock buy up of Hamil Corp."  
A two-year-old date came up.

"Arnold Casey Jones, April Jones-O'Neil, Raphael Splinterson." Karai read aloud, "Total shares purchased at time of transaction: three."  
Stunned, Leonardo sat back. "Raph's working at Hamil Corp."  
"It also means he owns a small part of the building of opaque darkness," Karai stated. "Meaning he has some small measure of that ancient power."  
"Intel," Leonardo ventured, "Access Hamil Corp Security Division."  
The computer screen glitched and a picture of a black dragon with a circling tail came up on a red background.

* * *

"And their last question for the night is: Asking for access to Hamil Corp Security Division ourselves. Lol, like who did they think they were talking to already? Geez." Joan clicked and sent Donatello's program off for loading up.

Up went the Hamil Corp Security Division logo onto the screens.  
"Awesome." Don declared, feeling just that little bit wicked, smiling triumphantly at the dragon picture that was all over the Foot's computer screens right now. "Oh, yeah, I'm a mean green hacking machine." He heard the computer whirring, the portal data pouring in through the Foot's locked out system; "The Don's still got it."  
"The download's complete," Joan reported.  
"Watch, watch!" Donatello leaned forwards excitedly.  
"Why what'd you do?"  
"I ordered their computers to reboot to factory settings." Donatello grinned, watching through remote view as the screen went blue and the connection was wiped along with everything else. "It's just enough inconvenience that they won't want to try hacking you guys again for a while."

* * *

Leonardo frowned at the animated picture of the black circling dragon on the glowing red background, "So much for the humourous advertisements."  
"There is nothing..." Karai frowned, pressing the button with no effect. "Computer, screen off."  
Leonardo watched as the screen didn't turn off. "Have they locked us out of our own system?"  
Karai snapped the intercom link, "Chaplin, they are in our computers!"  
"Mistress, the-."

The intercom cut off. The screen went blue and coding came up on it.

The intercom beeped. Karai snapped the switch. "Chaplin, status!"  
"Mistress, the portal data. It's ... been wiped."  
"Have we any other incursions?" Karai snapped the intercom, "All sections report in."  
"Clear, Mistress Karai." The same words came through two at a time.  
Karai watched the computer panel at her fingertips as though it were also a computer screen. "So then they have only reached into our computers. Oh! Brown has put his horror stories into my mind!"

She was motionless for a moment then turned her head to Leonardo. "This is still a very serious matter."  
"Yes, it is." Leonardo frowned back at her, "But why would Hamil Corp want to keep those portals running? It's owned by the employees themselves."  
"Or shall we say your brother." Karai straightened, "You have not told him anything about 'our' arrangement." She stressed. "He does not even know you are helping us conquer the demons."

"He wouldn't understand, Karai!" Leonardo stressed.  
"But he has no hope of understanding at all right now!" Karai snapped back at him. "He is blocking our efforts and we are all of us on the same side!"

Leonardo straightened, "You're right, Karai." He sighed, "I'll try to talk to him. Later. We need to keep investigating the demon titan. Is there any chance we have a copy of that data?"  
"Of course."Karai answered gruffly, "Chaplin should have our system restored within the hour."

* * *

Donatello ejected the memory card and gazed at it for a long moment. "I have been looking for you for a very long time, my friend." He told it serenely and then slotted it back into the computer. "Hey, Mark, you got another SD card? I'm all out and kinda freaked about losing this thing," because he'd kind of used them already ripping the holo-grid data from last night...  
"Uh, yeah, sure, here." Mark reached over and handed him another memory chip. "You wiped their database," Mark stated in a stunned voice.  
"Don't worry about them; they're backed up online." Donatello shrugged, "When they remember they are, that is." He chuckled, "It won't be the first thing they think of though."

Mark chuckled, "So now you've seen our data and the Foot's data."  
"Of the exact same portal!" Donatello said excitedly. "The next step is just to marry the Utrom version with the Hamil Corp version." Donatello smiled, watching the copy process complete. "This is going to be a piece of cake!" He sat back. "If it isn't too much bother, can I ask if-."  
"Just log in to the FPA intranet, Don." Mark shrugged. "Then you can email it to your FPA tech team from your own address."  
"Great, thanks." Don smiled, typing up the address for the FPA employee website portal. "I wonder how long it'll take for the Foot to get all cocky about having a backup that we didn't think of wiping?" Donatello mused cheerily.

Mark looked away from him, "I'm a little nervous about them figuring out the division logo, though."  
"They'll just think you're ninja like they are. The point is that they'll be so hyped about the portal data that they'll forget about the personnel records. Or at least it won't be the first thing they think of when they try again so you guys have time to build a better firewall than Joan and her mad keyboard skills."

Mark hesitated, "Don, Joan had to play reverse-turing because we don't want them frightened. Humans are not cool to deal with when they're frightened. If they actually found their way into the security grid, they'll find Chen's monthly division spending report, the building receptionists' call logs, and a whole motza of data with no recognised file format a.k.a. our census grid behind you."

Mark frowned. "Raphael's plan better work; there's bigger things to worry about these days than humans."  
"Yeah," Donatello remembered the Foot's portal file now at his fingertips. "Time to get cracking."


	17. Ch2 P10 The Unfrightener

_A/n: Grammarly, you fail me. There's an l missing from that word, can't you see?  
_

* * *

 **Chapter Two**

 **The Search for Leo**

* * *

 **Part 10**

 **The Unfrightener**

* * *

The intercom buzzed. Karai snapped it on, "Hai?"  
"Mistress Karai, we have received a visitor."  
"I expect no one." Karai straightened, "Who is he to come at such an hour?"  
"He gave me your card."  
"I do not give those to just anyone. Very well; permit his entrance, I will see him..." She paused, "In a business fashion. In the executive meeting room."  
"I'll go meditate for a while." Leonardo nodded to Karai, and left.

* * *

Upstairs, Leonardo settled down to his meditation session. It was some scarce few minutes when there was a presence in the room.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, Master Leonardo."  
Leonardo opened his eyes.  
"Mistress Karai calls for you. It is quite urgent."  
Leonardo stood up. "What's happened?" He asked the ninja security guard as he followed out of the room. "She was in a meeting with a business executive."  
The guard merely shrugged and led him over to the lift. "No alerts have been issued."  
"If she can call for me then she can call for an alert," Leonardo stated, stepping steadily into the lift. "I'm really interested to know what this is about."

A few moments later, Leonardo stepped out on the executive office floor with tension in his limbs.

Karai stepped out of a room on the right, practically clawing the doors shut. She hurried up to Leonardo's side.

"Leonardo-san, this is just too much!" She hissed.  
"What, Karai, what's going on?"  
Karai let out a laboured sigh. "He is the most insufferably boring little man that I have ever encountered."  
"You didn't give him your card?" Leonardo was intrigued.  
"I did give him my card, but ... how could I not? He is the CEO of Hamil Corp."  
"The building of opaque darkness?"  
"I have a headache." She sighed, rubbing her head. "He is .. how do you say it? He has little substance. He is like the wind, he is like ... white bread."  
"The CEO of the building of opaque darkness is like white bread?" Leonardo raised an eyebrow, "Well, I didn't come here thinking you needed an extra bodyguard, Karai."  
"I shall introduce you, as he seems quite ... ugh, entrenched in the meeting room." Karai led him to the tall door nearby.  
"Karai, I'm a turtle that talks." Leonardo clenched his teeth. "I could frighten the heck out of this poor guy like I did to Brown earlier."  
"One can only hope, Leonardo-san. It would suffice to speed an end to this unbearable visitation."

She went and pushed open the door.

* * *

As he entered, Leonardo took in the tall non-descript business suited man casually pacing in front of the window with his hands clasped behind his back. He didn't look so little to a five foot nothing turtle, but he did look a bit like he owned an office.  
"Mister Lakes, please allow me to introduce my very good advisor, Master Leonardo Splinterson. Leonardo-san, this is Heath Lakes, CEO of Hamil Corporation."

"Master Splinterson, such a pleasure to meet you!" The man turned, revealing a youthful face with a wide-eyed look. Beaming he came across and shook Leonardo's three-fingered hand with his five-fingered one in gusto. "Mistress Karai has told me so much about you." He turned away and gestured to the windows, "It's a very nice view you have here. Different. You can see our offices just across that way. Have you ever wondered why everything looks just so small from up here?" He looked at the room, "but this decor, however, it's really quite grand. So inspiring. I'm thinking we might redecorate our offices to something more like this."  
"Well," Karai interrupted, "I'm sure you two have enough to talk about, I shall attend to that er-matter, we discussed, Leonardo."  
Karai disappeared through the door with as much dignity as she could muster.

Lakes' voice went faint, "That is a woman of elegant repose."

Leonardo turned his head back to Lakes in confusion, "Who ... are you?"  
"Someone who 'was' minding his own business." Lakes was now frowning quite seriously and no longer reminded Leonardo of an anime character. "But I am faced with a threat ... a very serious threat at that, Mister Splinterson. A black dragon, not just any but a black and red dragon. A titanic, raging firebreather with a hide of cast iron."  
"Dragons are creatures of purity," Leonardo frowned, "So that just makes me want to know what you did to cause this one to go off the rails at you."  
"Very insightful, Leonardo, of course. My flaw is my dogma. When I push others to think, the message is more so to myself." He shook himself and headed around the table away from Leonardo.  
"You couldn't have just talked about this to Karai?" Leonardo gritted, "She would be a lot more interested to know about dragons than about the colour of the drapes."  
"It is a long-existing habit of mine when dealing with humans." Lakes explained with a sigh, "I came in here, knowing all that I know, faced Mistress Karai, and at once I inexplicably knew nothing."

"You're not human then. You sure look human." Leonardo considered him again.  
Lakes raised an eyebrow. "Although she may have tamed your dragon nature somewhat."

"I'm not sure what kind of insult that's supposed to be," Leonardo gritted, "But you generally try not to insult people when you're asking them for help."  
"Do you not enjoy having your prey come to you, Mister Splinterson?"  
"No, I am not that kind of person!" Leonardo gritted, "You have me confused with someone else, Mister Lakes." Leonardo said in a warning tone.  
"Ah. So unlike the blue water dragon you 'do' prefer to hunt."  
"I never said that!" Leonardo objected in a strained tone. "Why do you keep putting words in my mouth?"  
"Partially to see your reaction." Lakes raised an eyebrow, "Do you feel like perhaps throwing me across the room?"  
Leonardo's answer was dangerously close to a yes and he gritted his teeth, "Get that reaction often, do you?"  
Lakes stared fixedly at Leonardo, "Only from black dragons."

Leonardo folded his arms, "I'm sorry about the firebreather, but I honestly think you need to just grow up to make him go away."

Lakes coughed politely, "I would rather try a less impossible solution."  
Leonardo suppressed a pained sigh. "Why does that not surprise me?"  
Lakes looked up at him. "The fact remains that it's in your nature to hunt."  
"I never said that!" Leonardo objected, "And if you think-."  
"Obstinance!" Lakes gritted, "Why is playing with black dragons so hard?"  
Leonardo took a step back. "I'm not a-."

"Oh, yes you are!" Lakes pointed accusingly at him, "Black dragons are the most unfun creatures there are. Well, apart from red dragons. Those individuals have absolutely no sense of humour. But the only game you black dragons ever really like to play is 'consequences' and I don't like that game; not a bit!"

Leonardo realised the simple mind he was dealing with. "I'm very sorry I upset you. Why don't we change the subject back to your problem with the firebreather you mentioned?"  
"That isn't changing the subject!" Lakes exclaimed, "That is nowhere 'near' changing the subject. That is nothing 'like' changing the subject."

"Alright!" Leonardo was starting to fret. This guy was clearly lightweight and he should have listened to Karai's description a bit more, "How about you change the subject then?"

Lakes sat down in a chair. "I knew I recognised you from somewhere, Mister Splinterson." Lakes stared at him, "It was the biggest fight I've ever had in my life and it was with someone just like you. It's a very sad story, but I think you should hear it."  
Leonardo shrugged in mild defeat and sat down as well. "Uh ... sure."  
"He snuck up on me, very quiet, I was busy thinking on other things, erm dew, I think it was, and the rainbow, yes. Then he pounced. Sharp claws had dug into my tail before I knew what was happening. I madly shook myself, kicked him off me and hurriedly I climbed up a tree. Suddenly I was high up and out on a branch. I was so scared, I was in a blind panic. If I'd thought about it then, I could've just flapped my wings and got out of the way but in my mind I was still trapped in the battle, remembering how much those claws had hurt. And then he was there again, slowly making his way up to me, climbing out along the branch to me. His yellow eyes, staring straight at me. Do you know what happened next?"

Leonardo blinked, "What?"

"The branch snapped." Lakes stated flatly, "We both fell to the ground. It was horrendous; the sound of snapping wood, the rush of leaves, the sound of my attacker's screech. I'm almost all tail and don't weigh very much so there wasn't much to my landing, but he was large and heavy and he landed heavily too. I had the leaves to cushion my fall and he didn't. All I wanted was for him not to follow me, Mister Splinterson. I picked a small branch hoping the chase was over, that because it was too narrow for him he would have to give up. But he was so focused on getting to me that he didn't give a thought about how flimsy the branch was beneath him."

Lakes sighed. "I played a game of 'consequences' and I lost. I had banked on him backing down from a branch too narrow but he didn't. I never wanted that cat to die. But he died. I refuse to play that game again."

Lakes stood up. "I am told that the FPA squads are very good at fighting Category D and E demons. The Foot are praised as being good at fighting Category C demons. I can enforce a new rule for Hamil Corp security to defer Category C demons subject to your people's availability, but I'm sorry, Mister Splinterson. I have a great aversion to being eaten. Please leave Category A and B demons to my staff."

Leonardo thought that sounded a bit like getting an ultimatum from the hapless pizza cutter: 'That is all there is, my sons'. "They're fighting the demons?"  
Lakes nodded.  
"But they weren't there last night," Leonardo argued angrily.  
"The ban was still in effect." Lakes answered simply.  
"What 'ban'?"  
Lakes blinked, "My staff object to the ban. They are determined to fight Category A and B demons whether the Foot are present or not."

Leonardo sat back in his wooden chair. There was an art to staying hidden from ninja. On the other hand, they'd wiped the portal data earlier.

"Since we're all trying to do the same job of clearing New York of the demons, I agree that we should try to share the workload better." Leonardo declared, "However, the details need some more clarity before the Foot can agree to anything."  
"Clarity, yes, black dragons do value clarity very highly."  
"You've pitched us the Category C demons. But you haven't explained what they are."  
"It would be a very lengthy description. It's quite a broad category."  
Leonardo frowned at Lakes, "Again, I get the feeling that you're withholding information."

"I do apologise," Lakes cleared his throat, "but I bore easily about these things and our ecologist is away on stress leave."  
"There isn't a single chance that we will ever stop 'chasing up narrow branches' so long as you don't share the information as well."  
"I will see to it." Lakes rubbed his head, "A live data hookup is most suitably best. However," He looked up, "that requires further concession by you. Our security division must be allowed to bring a team onto these premises to arrange the hookup."

That wasn't a question for Leonardo. He instinctively looked around for the security camera in the room. "Might I ask why that might be a concern to us?" Leonardo asked soberly, looking back to Lakes.  
Lakes stared at Leonardo, "The ban was to avoid contact with the ninja in this city. It was for a very good reason. They are insanely frightening. I don't want you frightened, but they are as their job needs them to be. It is a common act for them to take on such large horrors as the one you faced last night."

The door opened and Karai appeared. "For you, they are frightening, Mister Lakes." Karai stepped back into the room, "But we are ninjas; we do not frighten so easily."  
Lakes stood up, "Good, so you have a lot in common." He said hastily, "A team of them will be around shortly to work on keeping you all from fighting each other on the streets." He bowed lightly to Karai but Leonardo could see the nervousness in him signalled a swift departure.

"Yes," Karai agreed, "it would be nice to focus our valuable resources on the demons plaguing us instead."  
"I'm very glad we could come to an arrangement," Lakes bubbled with what Leonardo decided was a hyper-tense kind of anxiety, "Mistress Karai."  
Karai looked over to the doorway guard, "Kindly escort Mister Lakes to the door."  
"Yes, Mistress Karai."  
"Thank you very much." Lakes gratefully followed the guard out.

* * *

Leonardo watched the door close behind the Hamil Corp CEO.  
"You did very well, Leonardo-san."  
"Well, he actually 'wanted' to talk to me, so I guess that helped." Leonardo paused, "Is it just me, or did he actually say the biggest fight he had in his life was with a cat?"

"Hai." Karai nodded. "However I am surprised you did not bring up the attack on our computers."  
"We hacked them first, Karai." Leonardo frowned, unimpressed. "I'm surprised he didn't bring it up with us."  
"Did you find him really so tolerable, Leonardo-san?"  
Leonardo hesitated, "He ... had a good story to tell."  
"It is getting late, and you need to see if you can find your brothers, but I will not feel at ease until this matter with Hamil Corp is finally at rest."  
"I'm not leaving you, Karai." Leonardo stated firmly. "I'm as uneasy as you are."

The intercom bleeped. Karai turned and pressed the button on the table. "Hai."  
"Mistress Karai, there are three visitors at the door, one being the turtle Raphael. They say they are from Hamil Corp security."  
"Looks like you're getting your wish, Karai." Leonardo raised an eyebrow.  
"They could not have moved this fast. Lakes was anticipating our cooperation." Karai glanced over at Leonardo, "Do they look particularly 'frightening' to you?"  
"No, Mistress Karai." The voice came back over the intercom. "Only the turtle is armed."  
"Allow them in. Bring them to the main technology room."  
"Yes, Mistress."  
"Raph doesn't do tech," Leonardo stated plainly, starting after Karai down the hall to the lift.  
"Your brother takes interest in your welfare. Since he is here it is a practical guarantee of that which he brings with him." Karai stated with positivity. "The veil of darkness lifts."


	18. Ch2 P11 We Meet Again, Karai

**Chapter Two**

 **The Search for Leo**

* * *

 **Part 11**

 **We Meet Again, Karai**

* * *

Leonardo and Karai stepped out of the lift onto the tech level and walked to the main lab. Troubled, Leonardo waited back before the doorway as Karai went in. How could he possibly explain his actions to his brother? That he was here to keep Karai from going back to her Esifter project to raise the Utrom Shredder again? Raphael wouldn't let him get that many words out before he cast his judgment.  
Raphael's voice sounded from the room beyond. "Sorry there, Mistress Karai, I think I heard your guy say there were just the three of us. Yeah; he wasn't counting properly."  
Leonardo detoured to the hallway's security monitor and scanned the room for heat signatures. Apart from Raphael there were two other unusual heat signatures in the room. Everyone else was Foot. Leonardo looked again at the heat signatures. Raphael's friends were cold blooded? Who were those guys? The guard would've said if they were all turtles. Or ... something else.  
"Raphael, what a pleasure-."  
"It ain't, Karai," Raphael interrupted, "Put the sugar bowl down before you hurt yourself."  
"It is a force of habit," Karai stated flatly, "So good of you to share your technology with us."  
"Yeah, whatever, Karai; so long as it keeps you from having your face melted off."

From the camera end Leonardo saw Karai's two body guards behind her tense. A moment later and two more cold blooded heat signatures had materialised to flank Raphael.  
Raphael's voice held a dark humour, "Hey, Karai, get a chance to count us yet?"  
This was too much and Leonardo stepped in through the doorway. "Why're you messing with us, Raph?" He snapped.  
"Leo!" Raphael exclaimed with a mildly stunned expression on his face. It only took him a second to recover. "Ain't that a coincidence? There I was out looking for you and here you were all along."  
"Again, Raph, why are you messing with us?" Leonardo gritted.

Raphael's darker sense of humour returned. "I thought you'd know that one, Leo, it's a fun little game we like to play. Anybody wanna take a guess what it is? Karai?"  
"Nobody's answering you, Raph." Leonardo gritted, "I don't know what your problem is but why don't you get over it?"  
"It's called 'consequences', Leo." Casey's voice came up from beside Raph as he took down the head of his cloak to let his dark brown mane of hair fall loose. "And you know it. It's your favourite game, your favourite weapon. The Katana. Don't reckon one would be enough, you got two of 'em. The way I figure it; that makes you doubly keen on playing."

Now Leonardo was concerned, "Casey-."  
"Don't!" Raph barked. Leonardo saw his brother raise a hand in a stop signal and Leo realised he'd put a foot forward, "Risk it, Leo. How's it going back there, April?"  
Now Leonardo recognised April in the same cloak at the other side of the room with the Foot techs. She was mucking around with the screen connections in the wall. That's when Leonardo realised the portal data wasn't displaying anymore. "It's a stupid HDMI, Raph!" April snapped back at him, "Ask me when the joke's gotten old!"  
"Mark?" Raphael asked his other cloaked companion. This one was in the centre of the room, standing beside a rectangular metal outline about ths size of a tall bookcase lying down on its back.  
"It'd be fun if I could talk to April again," Mark answered, "but it's all piped and ready to go."  
Raphael straightened, his eyes widened though he stayed watching Leonardo, "Careful, April you're gonna-."  
There was a snap of plastic and the scrunch of electronics.  
"-Do your nut." Raphael finished with a slight sigh.  
"Oh, that's better," April said with relief. "Nice clean slate now. Sort of. A matter of perspective. Hand me the pliers, Mark."

* * *

Splinter put down the bucket of soapy water beside the mops and other cleaning equipment in the walkway to the bedrooms. Bringing these things here had made him busy for just a few minutes; he took a breath, scanning the main area of the lair for the next trouble. Sounds of the boys squabbling over something.

"Now, where is my shell-phone?" In a brief moment of suspicion, he vaulted across the room and rounded on Joi chattering into the phone. He scooped her up, took the phone with his other hand and closed it to turn it off. "You also, my granddaughter!" He harrumphed in disapproval at the guilty look on her face as he carried her off. He set Joi down in front of the soap bucket. "Tora, Yoshi!" He bellowed loud and fiercely enough to get their attention amidst their tussling. The two little boy turtles came, racing to either side of their younger sister. Splinter glared parentally down on them. "The lair is in a mess." He declared to them. "You three will now make it not so. You clean." He pointed to the cleaning things, "Broom, bucket, dustpan, cloth. Now!"

"Tora, Yoshi!" He bellowed loud and fiercely enough to get their attention amidst their tussling. The two little boy turtles came, racing to either side of their younger sister. Splinter glared parentally down on them. "The lair is in a mess." He declared to them. "You three will now make it not so. You clean." He pointed to the cleaning things, "Broom, bucket, dustpan, cloth. Now!"

* * *

Leonardo heard Raphael's shell-phone ring. Raphael grabbed it out from behind his right Sai.  
"Hai?" He asked into the phone, an odd expression on his face.

"Whoa!" Raphael's eyes were wide listening to the electronic voice for a lengthy moment. Obviously, the person on the other end had a lot to tell him. "I'm coming home soon. I won't be long. Is-."

Raphael blinked at the phone in his hand. Clearly, the phone line had cut off. He didn't put it away though.

A minute later and April snapped her tool kit shut. She stepped up beside Casey with a smile on her face, hugging the toolkit to her. She looked over at Leonardo, "Hello, Leonardo, it's been a while. How are you?"  
Leonardo suddenly felt a headache trying to crash through his head, "Uh, hey, April." He frowned, working hard to concentrate past the cacophony in his head rather than pay attention to it. "So what's this data feed about?"

"Oh, sorry, I meant to say 'it's working', Raph." April twisted about, "Live from the data newsroom you now have ... take it away, Mark."  
"Lights out in three, two-."  
The lights in the room went off and a green holographic grid became the new light in the room.  
"Hello, New York City!" April cried buoyantly, "And isn't she just gorgeous?"

In the dark Leonardo stepped forwards to try and understand the multi-coloured lights. "What's all the red?"  
"Heat signatures, oh, of course, you don't want that. Turn that feed off, will you please, Mark?"  
The light dimmed and the red was off. "Now I'm seeing white circles," Leonardo stated, still working on his concentration.  
"Yeah!" Raphael's voice came quick from a distance, "Now those are the portals we gotta explain to you. So Mark and April've set up the data feed. What you need to do is interpret it for yourselves."  
"It is a transmission from the technology at your labs." Karai stated unimpressed.  
"Well, yeah, this is handwritten stuff," Casey advised. "No way you humans can do it yourselves."

"Anyway, the point is," Raphael redirected, "Category C has Category C written in their heading. Hover your hand over one."  
Leo raised his fingers to a nearby white circle and a tag popped up saying 'Category D'.  
The heading had two lines, Category D and "It also says 'Oonablytts'."  
"Pfft, scrawny leggers; Mike'll deal with that one. Nah, you need a Category C. April, you fixed their screen after your temper went through it?"  
"Right, like I'm the only one with a bit of a temper, Raphael." April stated, "Turn it on, Mark."  
"Holographic interactive protocols," Mark explained as the light of the giant screen glowed on.  
"You got a C over there, Karai," Raphael told her, "you just gotta break the light beam."  
"I'm sure I do not entirely appreciate this enough, Raphael," Karai stated in flat honesty. "We are being hand fed like little school children."  
"You know what, Karai, you're right." Raphael said sincerely, "but you know what you are missing from this setup?"  
Karai rounded on him, her voice becoming strict, "What is that, Raphael?"  
"You. Action. All this grid does is give you a clue. Where you need to go and what you need to go on with; so you wave your hand, read up on your stats, grab your sais and go. Welcome to Flashpoint Security, Karai. We're all on the same page now."

"The difference," April added, "is that our job is to look after the Category A's and B's and yours is C's." She flicked her fingers over another circle and on the screen loomed a titan demon with six arms and spines, "Our Flashpoint Beta team will be on that one right now. You see?"

At this moment, Raphael's phone rang again. With his headache, Leonardo found his attention divided and it distressed him even more. "Mark, show 'em how to work the tech," Raphael asked. "I've got to take this."

 _Raphael opened his shell phone, "Hai," he answered grinning wickedly to himself, "Fancy getting a call from you at this hour." Raphael paused. "You asking me? I haven't even figured out how to unlock my cooktop and I've only had it for two years." Raphael shrugged. "What's up?"_

"Yeah, it's all wired up to the main light switch," Mark explained, "Mistress Karai, so you can use-."

 _"Yeah, sorry; they're hungry," Raphael grimaced. "I'm a bit caught up right now._ Y'don't _have to go far for food, though."_

"-Although you might want to find a new TV and put it elsewhere;" Mark added, "the inputs-."

 _Raphael chuckled, "Nah, they'll set you straight."_

"I did not chew them, Mark," April ground out defensively, "I was upgrading retro tech."

Raphael closed up his phone and put it away. "You did great, April," Raphael reassured her, "And the Foot's got their new toy now. Alpha team: Let's vanish."

* * *

Splinter realised the task of cleaning was an insufficient distraction.

He went and collected the phone he'd taken from Joi up from the floor. With a brief thought, he hit redial.

 _"Hai." Raphael answered in what was clearly a better mood than Splinter himself was feeling, "Fancy getting a call from you at this hour."_  
"Raphael, my son..." Splinter took a long-suffering breath for clearly Raphael just did not properly grasp the situation just as yet. "How was Joi able to work the shell-phone when she cannot even draw?"  
 _Raphael paused. "You asking me? I haven't even figured out how to unlock my cooktop and I've only had it for two years." He quipped. "What's up?"_

"Forgive my old age, Raphael, but it has been many years since you and your brothers suffered from this level of distraction."  
 _Raphael was apologetic. "Yeah, sorry; they're hungry. I'm a bit caught up right now._ Y'don't _have to go far for food, though."_

"Ah, of course, they are hungry." Splinter's mental clarity was suddenly overthrown with a dangerous vision. His son's words meant for him to venture into the sewer tunnels with the young ones to find their food, "How might one tell the difference between the hunter and the prey, my son?"

 _Raphael chuckled, "Nah, they'll set you straight."_

"Hai," Splinter accepted; if his son trusted that his children could make this judgment, then so could he.

Splinter turned off the shell-phone and looked to see his grandchildren in a line gazing up at him. "Is the lair clean, my grandchildren?"  
They nodded so enthusiastically, it was clear the energy was far from spent. But he looked and for what his ninja and rat senses told him, the lair was 'sufficiently' clean again. "Then come." He picked up a set of katana from the weapons cupboard and stepped to the door.

Before Splinter addressed the matter of the door handle he turned to his three grandchildren, quizzing them with the most important question.  
"Before we go, tell me; what is the way of the ninja?"  
"Vanish," Joi answered.  
"Hmm," Splinter blinked to see the little turtle-dragons vanish from his view, "That is just as well." He tapped his walking stick lightly on the floor and then turned and opened the dual doors.

Stepping cautiously out into the sewer tunnel, Splinter was keenly aware of how much more dangerous the sewers were now than when his sons were growing up.

* * *

"Lights," Karai ordered.  
The lights in the main lab came on and the grid flicked off. Raphael and the others were nowhere in sight.  
"Handwritten," Karai stated, "They are telling us what they want us to know."  
With the departure of Raphael, his phone and April; Leonardo felt his headache clearing slightly. "Like we're nothing but complacent little puppets. For their amusement."  
"What could give them such a difference over us?"  
"I don't know, maybe being cold-blooded has something to do with it although that couldn't be the main reason. I get this haughty air of superiority from them. Especially Raphael; goading you like that. Those other two didn't come up on the heat signature panel at all, Karai, they didn't come from anywhere in the room, they were just suddenly there, and they were all cold-blooded. I don't know what's happened to Casey and April but they aren't human anymore."

Karai frowned at this informaton, "Either way, we should at least investigate your brother's hologram properly." Karai stated, "Then we decide how we should best behave. Lights."  
Again they were plunged into darkness. "They are all just white circles," Karai mused, "What is their pattern?"  
"This one's slightly pink," Leonardo waved his fingers over one. The screen lit up, "Category E."  
The demon on the screen changed as Karai swiped at another pink circle, still Category E.  
"It is too simple," Karai gritted, taking back her hand.  
"The map is like a tree, Karai; they've lit up all the branches." Leonardo waved his hand at a yellow tinged circle and it came up "Category B. Look at the screen."  
"It has the same amount of information," Karai stated, "Although they do not want us to engage this one."

"The information is standardised. Look, height, body mass, weight index. Body type, primary attack secondary attack, destruction pattern, food source, an intelligence grading?"

"We could, if we so choose, follow this one."  
Leonardo looked at the different shades of circles in the hologram. One over here disappeared, another reappeared over there. "In truth they hide, and they've given us a lot of truth to lose ourselves in."  
"Not at all, Leonardo-san. We have been given opportunity to observe and learn of how their Strike teams do the dispatch. I would like some justification for such faith. They are ninja; or so they seem."  
"Well, they've sure made it easy for us to find a front row seat."

"It is unsettling to see so many portals," Karai was uneasy.  
"They're mostly pink and green and blue." Leonardo flicked his hand over a green one, "Category D."

"The ones they want us to fight for them must be the blue ones then." He spied a blue one and waved his fingers over it, "Category C. Capa tengu."

"I am sure we might find a pattern, but perhaps we have learned enough for one night, Leonardo-san."  
"Lights, please," Leonardo requested. "I've got an idea, Karai."  
The lights came up.  
"What's that, Leonardo-san?"  
"The way they put this whole display together, it was in two, or three parts including the screen. The hologram, the data and then they meshed them together. Unless we're actually going to go out after a portal, we don't need the hologram. We just need to get familiar with the data on the screen so we can plan our strategies."  
"An excellent idea, Leonardo-san, it would certainly lift my headache." She turned to a nearby tech, "Find a way to bring just the category information to us."  
"We can't, Mistress Karai; that April woman made the technology incompatible. The transmission box they installed talks only to the hologram and the screen."  
Karai stated more severely, "Re-record the data by hand if you must."  
"That will take some time, Mistress Karai. The screen only shows one demon at a time."  
"Then you should begin now. Take ... photos." She stated, "We must understand as much as we can." She looked at Leonardo, "I am sure we are a significant step closer to discovering the pattern, Leonardo, but it has been a trying evening."

Leonardo nodded and fell into step beside her, "We should rest."

He paused outside the room, "Karai, when you said you had a headache..."  
"My mind is overtaken with small annoying men and impossible holographic circles." She frowned, "Is it not the same for you?"  
Leonardo hesitated, "It's gone now, but while they were here..." He rubbed his head, "Ever had someone try to get into your head, Karai?"  
"Yes." Karai frowned, "Are you really alright, Leonardo-san?" She put her hand on his arm. "Can you recall what they were after?"  
He held his head, "I had to concentrate to block them... it was ..." He looked up at her, "They were after you."  
"Me?" Karai let go of his arms. "I was beside you. Did they think you were somehow easier to break than I?"  
The word 'break' hit Leonardo's head, "Actually, I think it was April."  
"But these are ancient mystical powers, Leonardo-san," Karai remarked, "What is Ms. O'Neil doing with them?"  
"Apparently," Leonardo deciphered the encounter, "Trying to control my mind."  
"But she was defeated." Karai took his arm, "You need rest, Leonardo-san, as I do also."

They continued upstairs to the living quarters in silence. But it wasn't April's wordless telepathic voice that haunted Leonardo as he stood in the shower.

The last thing in Leonardo's mind before he fell asleep on the soft pillow was Raphael's voice talking into the shell-phone.

'They're hungry.'

* * *

 **Chapter End**

 **Next Chapter: Turtle With a Gun.**

* * *

 _A/n: So we found Spo-I mean Leonardo. Love to hear your comments.  
_


End file.
